


Your Name

by ClaireWhy



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Anime, Anime Retelling, Bodyswap, California, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, F/M, M/M, Septiplier - Freeform, bodyswap with a twist, kiminonawa, mark doesn't like pants, septiplier is endgame, yourname
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-02-28 05:50:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13265031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaireWhy/pseuds/ClaireWhy
Summary: Do you ever wake up crying, but can't remember why?Mark Fischbach, who for his whole life has lived in the drab countryside, swaps bodies in his dreams with a handsome city boy named Jack McLoughlin.





	1. Intro

**Author's Note:**

> You don't need to watch Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name) to understand this book, but I really recommend that you do, because it tells the story in a much better way than I ever could. 
> 
> Enjoy my new book :3

Mark searched the crowded Metrolink station, attempting to spot the familiar bright green hair.

He touched the red braided cord around his neck, hoping it would bring him luck. The place was a lot more populous than he expected. Even the buses back where he lived hardly had any passengers, and neither did the boat and train he took to get to Los Angeles.

A pair of blue eyes went by. He recognized Jack McLoughlin getting on the subway, wearing a grey hat—effectively covering his hair—and looking at his phone.

"Hey!" Mark yelled, hopping into the car. "Jack!"

The Irishman looked up, confusion evident all over his face, making Mark freeze.

 _He's got to remember me_ , Mark thought desperately, waiting for his expression to change.  _We've been switching bodies. He's_ got _to recognize me!_

"Uh, I don't think I know you," Jack said slowly. It was evident that he was trying to be polite. "Who are you?"

Heart breaking, Mark shook his head, "Never mind. I must have...made a mistake."

He pushed through the gaggle of people still getting on the train and stepped back out onto the platform, trying to stop himself from spilling his tears.

"Wait!"

Mark turned. Jack was standing between the doors, an indescribable emotion donning his features. Perhaps it was recognition. Hope. Or simple curiosity. Whatever the reason, Jack asked him in a rush, as if they were almost out of time—

"What's your name?"

⋆✵⋆


	2. The Wish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark complains and makes a wish

Mark dramatically collapsed onto the sofa, legs spread in an ungainly way. "I'm exhausted."

His mom shot him an evil eye from the kitchen, but did not reply.

His younger stepsister Kathryn huffed from the seat across him, sipping a soda. "What did you even do today?"

"I did nothing," he told her, glaring at the ceiling. "Absolutely nothing. And that's the problem! I am so  _tired_  of this boring ass place where nothing happens."

"What are you talking about? We do dances—"

"Dances that everyone teases me about! And I'm sorry, you and Amy do great, but I hate it. Everybody in this town is so close-knit I can't do anything without everyone knowing about it."

Kathryn thought about this. "Mark, your brother's the mayor. It's not the town's problem."

"I don't need a reminder of that." It was true that Thomas Fischbach was now mayor. Once their dad and stepmother both died from sickness, Thomas had left the house immediately, leaving his mom to raise her youngest son and two stepdaughters, Kathryn and Amy, by herself.

Kathryn examined the back of the soda, then put it down, looking at him seriously. "Someday," she began, "you'll move away from here. Someday you won't be here feeling like you're missing the world.  _Someday_. Right now, just suck it up."

Mark closed his eyes, "Yeah, okay. Thanks."

⋆✵⋆

The ritual was humiliating. It was family tradition, he knew, but he hated how his mom made him do it with his sisters. The dance was fine, but kissing his jade necklace and "filling his soul with it" was too much.

His classmates laughed at him throughout the whole thing, and even Ethan and Tyler's desperate attempts to distract him from them were fruitless.

After dinner, Mark was standing on the top of a hill, where he could see a small portion of the town.

He was full of food but still craving the adventure that the place couldn't give. Really, you couldn't pick a more isolated area in California than Avalon — it was on a freaking  _island_. Maybe one day it'd be a great tourist attraction, but for now, it was just the town's residents. He hardly ever got Wi-Fi, and there was  _nothing_ here.

The low buildings of Avalon were dim, and the night was uncomfortably quiet, making the loud sounds of crickets in the grass even more unbearable.

He tossed his head up to the sky, where the eyes of the night glittered and flashed. The stars were probably the only thing he loved about the countryside.

"I want to live in the city," he told them, feeling the cold breeze on his face. He imagined he was on a bridge of the busiest street in LA, where you there was always something happening.

The yearning became unbearable. He yelled at the sky, "I WISH I WAS A BOY IN LOS ANGELES!"

⋆✵⋆

Jack was awake, but he did not dare move. The bed was warm, and he'd clearly woken up before his alarm clock, and therefore should get back to sleep.

He shifted to his side, and blearily wondered why he felt so heavy all of a sudden. He opened an eye so he could look at his electronic alarm clock, only to see a lamp sitting on a wooden nightstand.

Huh?

Jack got himself into a sitting position, and blearily surveyed the room.

An acoustic guitar was propped against the wall, big black headphones dangled on a chair piled with clothes, and a teetering stack of unknown papers and notebooks sat on an incredibly disorganized desk.

Did he get drunk and walk into the wrong house?

He pulled the covers off and noted that he was also wearing someone else's clothes. He was also apparently wearing someone else's body. A body that was a lot tanner and buffer than he was. He was incredibly confused, but—

 _Holy shit I have plus one biceps_.

Spontaneous muscle increase was not something that happened to him daily. He poked them experimentally. They felt so real.

Whoa.

Okay this is definitely not his body, and this was definitely a dream.

He pinched his arm. Okay, there was some pain, but that didn't mean this was real.

whatisthis

It was certainly bizarre, but  _hot damn_  these muscles—

The door burst open, and in poked the head of a pink-haired girl with winged eyeliner. She opened and closed her mouth, mirroring Jack's own face. "Uh," she said, averting her eyes, "are you seriously kissing your own biceps?"

"No," Jack lied, then nearly jumped out of his skin. He sounded deep like the depths of hell. He had the voice of an effing demon.

The girl frowned at him judgementally, "Honestly Mark, I walk in on you doing the weirdest things. Mom's at work already and Kathryn's done making breakfast. Get your butt down."

Jack could only blink at her, "Mark?" He pointed at himself.

She stared at him for a long moment, "Yes, you're Mark. I'm Amy. Why are you talking like that?"

Jack gaped at the room and his tan hands. Did he actually swap bodies with someone? Christ on a t-shaped stick, didn't this only happen in movies?

He realized the girl was still there. "I mean, yeah, I know. I'm Mark."

She gave him an uneasy look, "Yeah...I'll brew you some extra strong coffee today." She dashed off, closing the door after herself.

The instant she left, Jack got to his feet and rushed into the room's bathroom.

_Holy mother of God I'm hot._

He did a spin and then peeked in the mirror again.

Still a hot Korean. Jet black hair and brown eyes. Chiseled face, holy moly.

_I am gorgeous._

SNAP OUT OF IT.

It had to be a dream, but his imagination could  _not_  be this good.

Jack realized he had to get moving. He brushed his teeth with a toothbrush and searched for some pants and a shirt. The pants were amazingly hard to find for some reason.

When he came down the stairs, he was flipping through the contacts on the phone he'd found, trying to figure out who he was, who everyone was, and what was happening.

Amy shot him a anxious look, and slid a mug of steaming black coffee across the table to him.

"Thanks," Jack said, taking a sip. Coffee usually had no effect on him, but in this body it seemed to wake him up. So this is what it feels like to not be hyper all the time.

He looked down at his grilled cheese sandwich. It looked so delicious compared to the plain bowl of cereal he usually eats every morning.

"Why are you just staring at your food?" Kathryn asked. "Like, eat, Mark."

"Right," Jack nodded. He bit into the sandwich.

Yum.

Best dream ever.

⋆✵⋆

The alarm clock nearly sent Mark to a hospital again. In other words, it nearly gave him a heart attack.

He fell straight off the bed and had to desperately slap at the clock to get it to shut up. His head hurt. Since when did he set alarms for himself? He usually waited for Amy to wake up, since she was always up at seven to put on her makeup.

3...

2...

1...

This was not his room, and this was not his body.

"I'm dreaming!" he decided aloud. He covered his mouth. WHY IS HE TALKING SO LOUDLY???

Even his thoughts were loud.

He looked down at himself. Black band t-shirt, pale skin, boxers, and really skinny legs.

Okay cool.

He went back to bed.

_Ping!_

Mark reached for his phone, but it was not where it usually was on his bedstand. He sat up and looked around. He has literally never seen this room before. It was so organized and had books and binders everywhere. How was it possible for his head to come up with this monstrosity?

He found the smartphone on the desk, charging. A notification said,  **School starts in thirty minutes.**

Mark nearly threw the phone in disgust. Who makes little reminders like that? It's almost like they  _want_  to go to school or something.

He was about to go back to sleep, when he distinctly had the feeling of the need to go the bathroom. This has never happened to him in a dream before...

What if he peed now, and he ended up wetting the bed in real life?

Amy would judge him until the end of time.

He went anyway, then dived back into his warm cozy bed before he could wake up fully.

Then he heard his phone go off again. It was a text message from some guy named Felix.

> **Missed u on the train today, fam**
> 
> **Did u take the earlier one or did u oversleep for the first time?**

Train? And who in the name of cow-punching heckity heck was Felix?

He opened up Google Maps. Why is the blue circle saying he's in Los Angeles?

Wait a minute.

Mark rushed to the window, pulling back the blue drapes. He was high up in a grey apartment, over a street where dozens of cars zoomed by.

The wish...he'd made a wish hoping he'd become a boy living in LA. What if this isn't a dream, and the world decided to grant his wish?

Ha, that'd be funny.

He realized it didn't matter. Dream or not, he was in freaking Los Angeles, and he better make the most of it.

Mark put on some pants.


	3. Day One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark and Jack's first day of swapping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY FOR THE WAIT HAHA  
> I COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT I'D STARTED POSTING THIS ON AO3

  
Mark peeked into the classroom. He'd scrolled through his phone and managed to figure out what school he went to and how to get there, but he knew he was late.

Why did he choose to come anyway, you ask?

He was sure this was a dream, but nevertheless, he still felt uneasy about skipping school.

The room was full of unfamiliar voices.

A teacher was sitting at his desk and writing in a notebook, and it seemed like the students were just hanging out. Maybe class had ended.

A girl with purple hair was talking to a guy, "I heard about this new game the other day..."

"Did you see the new video he posted?" said a guy with a large nose and brown emo hair. "And The Weeknd, have you checked out their songs yet?"

A tall boy with straight black hair was perched on a desk, chatting with an equally tall guy with curly brown hair, "So I looked out the window, and these pigeons were squawking and flying at each other! It was so dramatic."

"Jackaboy!"

A hand thumped onto his head, ruffling the green hair that had taken ages to figure out how to style. Mark turned to see a smiling guy with bleached white hair and glittering blue eyes. "Um."

The guy threw an arm around his shoulders and dragged him down the hall, "It's lunchtime, fam. You are like,  _really_  late."

"Oh."

"Very unlike you. And you didn't answer my texts."

He searched his brain for the guy's name, "Felix?"

"What?"

"Uh, nothing. Sorry for not answering. I was...in a hurry."

"Yeah yeah. What's with the accent? Are you pretending you're not Irish today?"

What kind of dream forces him to be Irish? Wasn't this supposed to be Los Angeles? He did his best leprechaun, "Top of the mornin' to ya."

Felix's hand slid down to his waist, "That's more like it. Welcome back, my sweet mashed potato."

"Are we dating?" Mark blurted. It was a dream, surely he could ask random shit like this.

"If you squint," Felix responded, obviously assuming Mark was joking, and not asking a genuine question.

Okay then.

⋆✵⋆

They ate lunch with an Italian girl named Marzia in a huge cafeteria. It took about two seconds for Mark to see how hard Felix was crushing on her.

It wasn't difficult. The guy held onto her every word like it were rain in a drought and couldn't stop ogling at her.

Welp, it answered the dating question.

Felix eyed him as he futilely searched his backpack for a lunch he did not pack.

Marzia gave him a compassionate smile and handed him a piece of her sandwich.

"Thanks," he said gratefully, biting into it. Boy, he could eat a truck full of cookies right now.

"God damn it," Felix said, mouth full of chicken wings. "You are acting strange as hell, McLoughlin. Isn't he acting weird, Marzia?"

"A little bit, yeah," she replied, in that cutesy voice of hers.

Felix started listing things out on his fingers, "You forgot what class you had, your lunch, where you sit, who Marzia was, where your locker was,  _and_  you were late nearly three hours. What the fuck does this mean? Are you calling for help?"

"No! I'm fine, really." Mark wished everyone would stop being such a good friend to him and just leave him be, "Just—having a weird day."

" _We're_  having a weird day," Felix said dryly, but dropped the subject.

Marzia perked up, "We should go to the new café afterschool! I heard from Emma that it's really good."

"You and Emma Pickles," Felix muttered enviously into his chicken.

All Mark heard was café. Avalon had no cafés whatsoever. Tyler once played a prank on him by saying one just opened on the other side of town, then taking him to a vending machine. It was a cruel betrayal that made him very uncertain of their long friendship.

He desperately crawled to Marzia, not unlike a starving man, eyes wide, "C-c-café?"

"Um...yes?"

Felix glared at him suspiciously, "Whoa whoa whoa. Back off Marzia, Jackaboy."

Mark clapped his hands, "Yes! I'd love to go to a café!"

⋆✵⋆

"Ready to order, men?"

Mark blinked at Felix, "Why are you calling me 'men'?"

"Don't-tuh make-uh fun uv mei accent, men."

That sentence alone had Mark concluding for the fifth time that day that Felix was crazy. Then Felix dabbed, and Marzia covered her face.

Mark was oblivious as to what exactly the Swede was doing, but he knew it was something cringey, and made a mental note to never to this "dab" thing. He looked back down at his menu.

Wow, this stuff was expensive. But it was a dream, right? He could rip off all his clothes and bathe in a vat of yogurt if he wanted.

Good thing he didn't want to.

He ordered a waffle topped with fluffy butter and syrup, served with yogurt-covered blueberries and strawberries.

It was the most delicious thing he'd ever eaten, and he relaxed in his seat, listening to his friends talk and watching a dog at a neighboring table lick at a glazed donut without his human noticing.

His phone pinged.

JEsUS cHRisT not another reminder.

 **Work starts right now** , his phone said.

He also had a text message from Robin:

**You have a shift today bro, where are you?!**

"Oh my god, I'm late for work!"

Felix put down his tea, "You have a shift today?! And you still came to eat with us?"

"Apparently!" Mark panicked. He didn't know why he was so worked up—after all, this was a dream—but he felt like abandoning his "job" was going to end this whole thing somehow.

Marzia made a  _scram_  motion with her hand, "Go on, Jack, we'll pay."

" _I'll_  pay," Felix corrected, already reaching for his wallet.

Before the Italian could retort, Mark asked nervously, "Um, where do I work?"

Their expressions would've been hilarious if he wasn't so embarrassed.

⋆✵⋆

With the help of Marzia's clear directions, Mark successfully made it to the electronics store.

Once he entered, a guy with brown hair threw him a uniform and pointed insistently at the  **Employee's Only** sign, "Go go go!"

When he came out, the guy—Robin, he discovered from his name tag—was looking at him with concern from the cash register. "Okay Jack, you're safe. The manager hasn't come to check on us yet, but you're late fifteen minutes. This isn't like you."

Mark was getting tired of people saying he wasn't acting like Jack. He  _wasn't_  Jack. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Robin turned away to start helping a customer, "it's not too busy today, but we still need you. Cry's somewhere over there, and Signe's stocking up."

"Oh, okay." He remembered Signe from his contacts, written as  **Signe**

Now he knew how to pronounce her name.

Mark stood around the shop, coming over when he was called. It was a real struggle getting to everyone, and he constantly had no idea what to tell them. A lot of the stuff sold at this place were completely new to him. For instance, he couldn't believe the iPhone8 was already out. His town so far only had the sixth model.

Another example of why Avalon sucked.

"Hey," a grumpy customer was holding a black computer system unit in one hand, and motioning for Mark to come help him with a smoothie in the other.

Mark rushed to carry the heavy computer to the repair table at the back of the store. "So um, what's the problem?"

The customer had a funny triangular beard, but his expression was nothing to laugh at. "I bought this computer a week ago from here, but the other day it broke down all of a sudden! This is unacceptable."

"Oh...uh, sorry. Lemme look at it." He picked up a screwdriver, before realizing it was the wrong one and picked up another. He shoved the tool into the screws and started to open up the computer.

The customer looked irritated, "Why is this necessary? I told you it's broken. Your products suck."

"We only sell the products," Mark sniped without thinking. "We don't make it ourselves."

The man's nostrils flared in the most disturbing way, "Either way, you're liable. Give me a new one."

Mark raised his eyebrows, unimpressed, "You want the exact same one? The one that 'broke'?"

"Of course not, I want a better one."

Mark ignored his bullshit, and removed the lid of the computer. He stared at the insides. Something sticky had been spilled in it, and from the smell, it was obvious what it was.

"Is this a joke? How did you manage to spill orange juice  _inside_  your computer?" he demanded.

The man turned devil red. He slammed his palm on the table and screamed, "WHAT IS THIS SERVICE? I WANT A REFUND!"

Other customers turned to stare at the drama, and most of them were staring at Mark.

He had no idea what to do, and all his thoughts were screaming at him to punch the guy in the face. Before he could follow through, a girl with short brown hair pushed him aside, hissing, "I'll handle this."

She proceeded to talk to the guy with an almost undetectable drop of sarcasm, "I'm very sorry sir, but it's against our policy to give new PCs to anyone who spills a drink on their old one. That had nothing to do with us, but you are more than welcome to buy a new one here. I'll be happy to assist you." Throughout the whole speech, she gave off the air of being polite, but her eyes were vicious.

"Listen here, girl," he snarled, waving his smoothie around like an old man would with his cane, "the customer is always right."

"And we as the staff get to decide whether or not you are a customer. I sincerely apologize, but you are asking us to do something we can't. Have a nice day." She smiled.

He chucked the smoothie at her, and it burst against her chest. Strawberry milk dripped down her uniform.

The entire shop's inhabitants gasped. Robin ran over to shoo the man out, but he was already storming away, yelling that he was going to sue.

Other customers were rushing over to ask if she was okay, but Signe brushed off their concern. "It's fine, I should have seen it coming."

Robin had to go back to the register, but Mark stayed with Signe.

Signe huffed and started to the employee's only room, "What an asshole."

A guy with red hair and blue eyes— **Cry** , his nametag said—started to clean up the mess, and Mark left the mop action to follow Signe.

She was digging through a shelf of uniforms. She stopped and sighed, and he asked her what was wrong.

"None of the spare uniforms are my size," she explained. "I'll have to wear a large one."

Mark felt bad for her. Judging by her perfect eyeliner and designer heels, she was a person who liked to be fashionable.

"You can wear mine," he offered. "I'm probably just a size bigger than you. I'll wear the huge one."

Signe smiled, "You don't have to do that, Seán. I'm not that petty."

"Seán?" he blinked.

It was her turn to be confused, "Yeah. When you first started to work here, you told me I could call you that."

Wow, Jack. "Oh, yes, right. Forgot about that. But really, I won't mind looking ridiculous for a day."

She hesitated, "Well, if you're sure."

"I'm sure. Consider it thanks. For, you know, saving me. I didn't know what I could say to him, and my mind was just itching to slug him across the face. That would've looked bad."

She shrugged, "No problem. I mean, I don't even  _know_  who he was trying to fool. That's like shoving a toothpick in a fucking pizza and then demanding it to be on the house."

"God, that'd be so stupid. I guess it's different though, with a restaurant. A pizza is a lot cheaper than a computer, and you wouldn't want to start a commotion."

"True."

When they were done changing, Signe said, "You know, I've never seen this side of you."

"That might have something to do with the huge t-shirt I have on."

She laughed, "No, I heard you talking back to the guy earlier. You had your fists clenched and everything, but...you usually hate confrontation. I remember this one time a girl pushed down a stand because she didn't like a price, but  _you_  apologized and said the stand must've been loose."

"Oh. Well, he pissed me off a little more than she did."

Signe looked at him admiringly, "I like this new side of you." She opened the door, "Thanks, again. Now let's get back to work. Robin's probably wondering what's taking so long."

⋆✵⋆

Back at home, Mark scrolled through photos on Jack's phone.

He didn't think of this dream as him having a new body in a new city. This Jack was a whole separate person to him. Someone real. Jack was organized, hated confrontation, and loved cookies and coffee. He wondered if he existed in real life.

He'd like to meet him.

There were a lot of pictures of Jack and his friends at school, restaurants, concerts, and tourist spots. He wanted to go to all of those places, but he was tired.

Jack had such a nice face too. Not like his own stupid Asian face.

He poked through the beside drawer, and found nothing incriminating or interesting besides a spiral notebook. "Oh," he said to himself, flipping it open without hesitance. "He keeps a diary, how cute."

They were brief and short, for the most part, but fascinating to read about.

Felix and Marzia apparently had massive crushes on each other but refused to admit it, and the most Jack does with his father is eat meals with him. Jack's parents had also gotten divorced a few years ago, and his mother lived in Ireland.

He wondered if Jack got very lonely at home, with his four older siblings all either in college or living somewhere else, and parents who didn't pay him any attention, or if he just texted his friends all day.

Mark wanted to leave a message somehow. He still wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but this was more than just a random dream to him.

He walked over to his desk and picked up a black marker, writing on his hand a single word.

**Mark**


	4. Is Mark Possessed?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack's day in Mark's body.

When Jack heard that he had school, he panicked.

In retrospect, that was ludicrous. It was a dream, and he usually never worried about things in dreams. Nevertheless, the thought of being late sent him into a flurry of activity.

He threw some random notebooks into his backpack and went downstairs. Strangely, his sisters (?) were already gone.

Either they went to a different school, or he did not walk to school with them.

He opened Google Maps on his iPhone. The town, Avalon in California, had only one high school.

At least he was still in the same state. He didn't want to start practicing another focking American accent.

The school was a twenty minute's walk away, so he got started.

The phone vibrated, and a text message appeared at the top of the screen from someone named  **pineapple advocate**.

> **U too SLOW**
> 
> **We are leaving without u**
> 
> **Um who are you?**
> 
> **Wow did u delete my number?**
> 
> **Rude**
> 
> **All I said was that pineapple can go on pizza**
> 
> **It's Ethan u cookiehead**

Jack combed through his memory, trying to remember a guy named Ethan in his life. He never thought about that name, and he wondered where he'd seen it for his subconscious to drag it up in this dream.

This "Ethan" had also said  _we_. Who was the other person?

What if it was Signe?

"No, _shut up_ ," he told himself.

A passing woman shot him a strange look, and Jack pretended not to be embarrassed.

⋆✵⋆

Gym being the first class should be outlawed.

It wasn't that Jack didn't like gym. He was okay at it, but he'd much rather be in music class or even chemistry.

He was lucky that the sport they were playing was soccer, but it was unlucky that he had no idea what his locker combination was.

Luckily his friend-or-somebody was there. "It's 0-6-2-8 doofus," the guy sighed, shaking his head. He was tall, with curly hair and a serious expression. And Jack didn't recognize him. At all.

"Just testing you," Jack said, opening it up. He picked up a black gym bag and started to the changing room.

"Did you hit your head?"

He turned, "Huh—what?"

The guy tapped his head more times than necessary, "Did you hit it?"

"No! I'm fine, don't worry about me."

He fled into the little stall before he had to answer anything else.

Jack sighed, staring at the gym shorts in his hand and his pants on the floor. He felt extremely embarrassed about changing in a body that wasn't his.

"Mark!" a voice called from above. "Maark!"

With a start, Jack realized that he was being addressed, and he glanced up, not knowing where else to look.

A acne-ridden brunet was peeking over the wall.

"AH!" Jack shrieked, nearly falling over.

"Relax, it's your boy Ethan, and I've already seen your crotch a hundred times too many."

Jack's mouth just fell open like a mic drop, "Uh—"

Ethan held out a hand. "Pass me some deodorant, I'm out."

"S-sure," Jack dug into the bag and tossed it up.

"Thanks Mark." His head disappeared.

Jack looked down at himself, not being able to resist feeling self-conscious. It still felt like he should look down and see his skinny pasty legs, but he kept seeing tan skin and it was  _weird_.

Good thing he was hot, though.

⋆✵⋆

By lunch Jack had figured out most people's names. It was ridiculous: he didn't know anyone in his real life called Mark, Ethan, Tyler, Amy, or Kathryn, and yet his brain created this weird-ass dream with these names in them.

The thought crossed his mind that this wasn't a dream, but the idea was quickly struck down. It was ludicrous and unbelievable.

He'd seen Kathryn and Amy in the school a few times, and figured out that they were freshmen while he and Mark were both juniors.

Jack also noticed that students stared at him a  _lot_. He'd asked Ethan about it in chemistry, but he'd just rolled his eyes, "Your bro's the mayor, what'd you expect?" Then he'd added, "Also, you're acting crazy."

"Mark," Tyler said, and Jack desperately wished that people would stop  _calling_  him that or he'd have an identity crisis, "what are you doing afterschool?"

"Um...I don't know...homework?"

Tyler actually laughed, "Yeah, right. I was thinking we could ride around town."

Ethan pouted, slapping at Tyler's arm. "But my bike's being fixed."

"You can ride on my handlebars."

"Oh fuck no."

"Well, Mark?" Tyler asked, ignoring Ethan's whines. "You don't have any family stuff do you?"

Jack tried to remind himself that he wasn't messing around with Mark Fischbach's life. This was just his own imaginative brain, and he could do whatever his stupid brain told him to. "I'll go."

⋆✵⋆

The last class was art class. Admittedly, he'd spent the first half of the class—and most of the day—staring out the window, so he didn't know what to do when people started getting up.

He caught Ethan by the shoulder, "What're we doing?"

"I dunno," he answered cheerily, "ask Tyler."

"What are we doing?" Mark—no,  _Jack—_ asked Tyler.

The stone-faced man said, "We're doing perspective, and she told us to draw a city."

"Oh," Jack said, "sounds easy enough."

Ethan stared at him, ceasing his movements of getting his huge paper. "But you can't draw for shit!"

"Yes I can," Jack argued.

"And you weren't listening in class!"

Jack grinned, "You'll see. I can totally draw a city."

He got his supplies and made his way back to his desk, hearing Ethan frantically whisper to Tyler, "Has he gone mad?"

"He's just trying to inflate his ego; it'll go down soon, don't waste your worry."

Jack spread his paper out and got to work. He was never a good artist, but he knew enough about art from listening to Signe talk or watching her draw that he could decently sketch a city skyline.

He knew to make the vertical lines go straight up and down, and to make the horizontal lines all go towards two points on the right and left side. Jack saw the city every day, and he knew how to bring it to paper.

Ethan briefly swung by to see how he was doing, but his head swung right back to look at his sketch again. "No fucking way. You drew that?"

Jack looked at his drawing. It wasn't great, obviously, but it definitely looked like it'd get a decent grade.

Tyler's face had on one of its rare other expressions besides seriousness: surprise. "You look at pictures of cities a lot, don't you?"

Jack wasn't sure what to respond, "Uh, I guess. How'd you know?"

Tyler rolled his eyes, like it was obvious. "Every single day I hear you blabbing about how you want to live in the city," Tyler tapped a little café in his sketch, "and that the first thing you want to do is eat at a café."

Jack frowned, "I said that?"

Ethan tapped Jack on the forehead, "Uh, yeah? All the time?"

"But cafés are expensive," Jack pointed out, furrowing his eyebrows, "and usually really noisy. And the service isn't always great."

"You're possessed," Ethan announced, clutching his head melodramatically. "Absolutely possessed."

"Let's leave him alone," Tyler whispered, pulling Ethan away.

⋆✵⋆

"Where's my bike?"

His "mom" put down the plate she was washing, tilting her head questioningly. "Is it not in the shed?"

"Oh, thanks."

Jack went back outside, only to hear the woman yell out, "The shed's the other way, Mark!"

Sighing, Jack stumbled back into the house and to the back door, just giving the lady a charming smile when she shot him a concerned look.

He passed the living room, which had photos propped on the mantlepiece above a bookshelf.

Pausing, he peered at the pictures. One was a big family photo, with Mark, his mom, Amy, Kathryn, another woman, and a guy who looked like Mark's older brother.

The mayor, apparently, if the whispers at school had been correct.

Another photo showed the mother and the other man, along with Mark and his brother. The second woman and two girls were smiling in the third picture.

 _Oh_.

Amy and Kathryn were Mark's stepsisters. The woman must be the stepmother.

Either that, or the man was the stepfather, and the two women were the original couple.

There were two more photos, which were framed. One was of the second woman, and the second was of the man.

They were the only people who Jack hadn't seen yet, and he wondered if something had happened to them...

He shook his head before he got himself too confused or too sad.

 _Bicycle_ , he reminded himself.

Outside, he located the shed in the backyard and took out a black bike, a brown basket attached to the front.

Google Maps proved to be better friends than Ethan and Tyler when it came to finding the rendezvous spot, the town center.

Ethan was screaming on Tyler's handlebars while the older boy raced around in a circle, "MARK!! MARK HELP ME!!"

"Hmm?" Jack asked, hopping off the bike. "What was that?"

"MAAAKEE HIMM STOPPP!!" the brunet yelled, teeth chattering as Tyler ran over the cobblestones.

Jack threw his head back and laughed at his goofy friends, and he was suddenly struck with how dazzlingly blue the sky was.

He could get used to this.


	5. Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Mark slowly figure out that it was not a dream.

_Knock knock_.

The door inched open and Amy hesitantly poked her head in, "Mark? Time for breakfast."

Mark yawned and stretched, scratching his stomach, "Be right down."

"Okay." Amy continued to stand there, watching him with an unsettled expression.

"What is it?"

She furrowed her perfectly plucked brows, "You're not kissing your biceps today. I thought you were going to be cuckoo forever."

Mark stared at her, mouth flopping open like a fish, "What are you talking about?"

Amy shook her head, "I don't know. You were just a totally different person. Had an Irish accent and everything. Now hurry up, your food's getting cold."

She slammed the door and thumped down the stairs.

Mark looked at his arms. He was usually a little more secretive about worshipping them.

⋆✵⋆

Breakfast was just as strange. Kathryn watched him drink his coffee carefully.

"What?" Mark asked, getting frustrated.

"Nothing," she muttered, "you just drank your coffee really eagerly yesterday."

"I did?" he thought about this. He barely remembered anything about the day before. The more he thought about it, all he could recall were flashes of his wonderful dream in the city. He could also remember being in the body of a guy named Jack, and staring at himself in the mirror a lot.

But it wasn't only his stepsisters, his friends were treating him strangely too.

He met Tyler and Ethan at their usual rendezvous place before school, a bench that marked the midpoint of Tyler's house and the school. He interrupted the duo's bickering by announcing his presence. "Hello everybody."

Tyler nodded a hello, but Ethan was looking at him in surprise, "Have you been purged?"

Mark dropped his hand at the blunt greeting, "What the fuck?"

"Uh, I mean, it's great to see you—good morning and all that, but do you mean to tell me that you didn't realize you were acting totally  _possessed_  yesterday?"

Mark's mind went blank. "I guess I...forgot?"

Tyler shot him a curious look, "You want some more examples of what else you forgot? Yesterday you arrived at school ten minutes late—which I guess is normal, but you forgot half your textbooks, your schedule,  _and_  your name. Your  _name_."

Mark's mouth dropped open, "I don't remember that! Are you guys playing a trick on me?"

Ethan shook his head, "We thought  _you_  were playing some kind of prank. I mean, you managed to sit at the wrong lunch table, too. How do you explain that?"

"I don't...I have no idea."

Tyler patted his shoulder, "It's probably just stress, right Mark? You lost it yesterday, but you seem fine now. All is well."

Ethan snorted, disbelieving, "Yeah, now that you've stopped messing with us."

They passed the town square, where his older brother was giving a speech about rennovations. He spotted a group of snotty kids from his class lurking and listening.

Rolling his eyes, Mark walked faster, his friends close behind.

"Mark!"

He froze, turning to look at the mayor with dread, "Yeah?"

Thomas's eyes were hard, "Don't ignore me like I'm some sort of pest. Get to school, and don't be late again."

Mark ignored him and stormed away, hearing the snickers of his classmates.

"Like he has the right to chastise me!" he spat out, trying to keep his frustration in and not punch a telephone pole.

"Sorry about him," Ethan murmured pityingly.

"It's not your fault."

⋆✵⋆

The students at school also paid him a lot more attention than usual.

"Do you remember your name, now?"

"Know what your next class is, Fischbach?"

"Are you lost again?"

Mark ignored the taunts and waved goodbye to Tyler, before stepping into Literature with Ethan.

He noticed the teacher watching him sit, then look back to her clipboard. Mark still had no idea what had come over him yesterday, but it was really bothering him now.

"Did you bring your book today?" Ethan asked.

Mark glared at him, "I did, thanks."

The brunet held up his hands, "Just checking, man."

Mark took out his copy of the book they were reading in class, and his notebook.

As Ethan hummed some song about ice cream, Mark thought about his dream. It was slipping from his memory, as all dreams do. Still, he knew he'd been some skinny Irish guy who had neon green hair, a crazy meme-spouting best friend called...Felix? Either that or Felicia.

It was a strangely detailed dream, he realized, though he couldn't recall the details themselves.

The professor began the lesson, and he flipped open his notebook to find a new page. A flash of black caught his eye, and he flicked back a few pages.

In thick black marker were the words,  **what the heck are you? what is happening?**

When did he write that?

"Mark?"

He looked up. The professor was staring at him.

"Um, what was the question?"

She gazed at him sympathetically, "I asked if you were alright, you were acting strange yesterday."

"Yeah," someone agreed, "you kept making really loud outbursts."

Mark paled. Did he really?

"Um, sorry," he apologized to the class, and he now felt more confused than ever.

His teacher shrugged, "It's alright, Mark. Just make sure you pay more attention from now on."

⋆✵⋆

When Mark came home from school, his mom watched him carefully.

"Let me guess," he drawled, "I was acting strange yesterday."

She nodded, but didn't look at all weirded out, "You asked me where you keep your bike. And your video games."

"Oh," Mark said, not knowing how else to reply. He retreated to his room, the craziest theories going through his head.

One was that he'd been sleepwalking yesterday. The other was the body swap theory.

He couldn't believe that the latter would be the more likely option to him. Sitting at his chair, he looked through his desk, seeing if there were any more hints as to what happened. After some sifting, he found a sheet with music notes all over it. It didn't look like notes he recognized for any instrument, but then again, the only instruments he'd ever touched were the piano, guitar, and a pathetic recorder in school.

Then he looked at the top right corner of the paper.

**Jack McLoughlin**

Mark didn't know any Jacks besides the one he'd dreamed about, and this only confirmed his theory.

He sat back in his chair, staring at his wall. "Holy shit, I'm body swapping with Jack McLoughlin in my dreams."

⋆✵⋆

**Mark**

Jack was in the process of pulling on a shirt, when he blinked at the thick black word on his left palm. It was a little smudged, but he could still read it. He did not remember writing that.

He went to his washbasin and scrubbed at it, absentmindedly trying to recall that cool dream he had.

Wait...wasn't Mark the name of the guy he dreamed about? He looked at his hand again, but he'd already cleaned it off.

After washing his face, brushing his teeth, and fixing his hair, he stepped out and realized that his room was a  _mess_.

"Why are all my pants on the floor?!" he shrieked.

⋆✵⋆

Jack jolted when he felt a slap on his back as he stepped onto the subway train.

"Relax," Felix chuckled, "it's just me. You know, your BFF. Felix. Your Swede."

Jack looped his fingers through the hanging strap and stared at him, wondering if his friend was finally running out of stupid jokes. "I'm well aware of that."

"Well, you weren't yesterday. I don't know what the fuck came over you, but you completely didn't recognize me in the hallway, you called yourself  _Mark_  in Art class, you were talking in a spot-on American accent, and you didn't respond to my texts that morning."

"What?" he opened his phone, and sure enough, he had apparently ignored his friend's six messages without even realizing it. He must've had way too much practice.

That was a joke.

But now that he thought about it, he had no idea what he'd done yesterday. He pulled at his long sleeves, urging his useless brain to think. All he could remember was his dream about being this hot Korean guy and drinking a lot of coffee.

"Ummmm, why are you blushing?"

Jack touched his face, "Am I?"

Felix shook his face up and down violently, white hair flying every which way, and said through his teeth, "Don't you respond to my question with a question you white potato."

Jack threw his arms up, "I don't know, man. I had a weird dream."

His friend raised his eyebrows really high, making his forehead wrinkle up like a leather purse. "Oh,  _did_  you?"

Jack stepped on his foot, "Shut up, that's not what I meant."

"Hey, respect wahmen."

"Please stop that."

Felix went to normal mode, "But really though, you were totally cray cray. You got lost, like, four times."

Jack did remember getting lost, but that was in his dream, as the Korean guy. Was it? Even the dream was slipping through his fingers.

" _And_ ," Felix held up a finger and paused, ever the drama queen, "you were  _late_."

"I was  _what?!"_

"See? You're even shocked at yourself, Mr. I-Never-Miss-An-Appointment-By-More-Than-Negative-Five-Minutes."

"What does that even mean?"

"It means you always come five minutes  _early_ , dammit."

" _You_  always come five minutes early," Jack fired back, changing the meaning.

Felix held a hand to his heart, "Did you just—I can't believe—you—you  _leprechaun_."

"Is that the best you can do, you shitball?"

"Yeah!"

They spent a few minutes trading meaningless insults and generally offending anyone within earshot.

It took that long for them to get bored and start scrolling through their cellular devices.

Felix seemed to have accepted that Jack had just been really distracted, but Jack was beginning to think otherwise.

Especially after he'd found little notes in his Calendar App.

> **Meet Robin at 3:15PM**   
>  **_Notes: But this is a dreamm_ **
> 
> **Signe starts shift 4PM  
> ** **_Notes: Why am I so obsessed with this girl?_ **
> 
> **Work starts at 5PM  
> ** _**Notes: Noooooo** _

Jack turned beet red at the second one. His phone could only be unlocked with a four-digit password that he'd never felt the need to tell anyone, or his fingerprint. Whoever had gone through his phone could only be...him. It didn't make any sense.

⋆✵⋆

Even at school everyone claimed he'd acted weird.

In English, Phil reminded Jack that he had a quiz on Friday. In Art, Marzia told him where he sat. In Every Class, someone asked him if he was okay now.

By noon, he felt like he  _wasn't_  okay and was probably insane.

"Did you bring your lunch?" a kind voice asked.

Jack nodded, waving some instant noodles in Marzia's direction.

"You forgot your lunch yesterday," Felix informed him. He had taken it upon himself to remind Jack of every single thing he had  _forgotten yesterday_.

The list was a mile long already, and it he didn't stop it'd be as long as the beard Felix wants to grow.

"You got work later, too," Felix said. "Can't miss seeing your Sig—"

Jack threw up his hands, "Felix!"

"Felix!" Marzia chided, giggling.

The Swede looked at her, unamused. "Wahman."

"Stop!" she wailed, burying her face in her hands.

Jack sighed and peeled opened his noodles container.

"Hot water's over there in case you forgot," Felix pointed, smirking.

Jack swatted him.

⋆✵⋆

He buttoned the collar of his red employee's shirt and strode out to the counter to greet Robin.

Robin was beaming widely at him, and Jack took a step back. "Um, am I getting a raise?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Robin placed his elbows on the counter beside the register and laced his fingers together like a deadly trap. "Come on, you know what I'm gonna ask."

Now Jack wished he had Felix to remind him what the frick frack had happened at work yesterday. "I...don't?"

Robin's mouth nearly formed a  _w_. "You and Signe."

Jack felt himself go cherry red, "Wh-what?"

"Don't act like you don't know—oh, she's here."

"Hey Sean!"

Jack nearly dropped to the floor. "Hey Signe," he nodded.

"Thanks for yesterday," she smiled and glided into the employee's room.

_THANKS FOR YESTERDAY?_

His heart felt faint as he stumbled over to the printers aisle. Trying to ignore Signe's humming as she exited the employee's room, he straightened the products and checked the tags, trying to stare at Signe as discreetly as he could.

His phone pinged, and he made sure there were no customers before checking it.

> **Robin: A picture would last longer**

Jack glared at the Swede, who was smiling innocently at the register. Honestly, he had two Swedish friends and they were both dicks.

He pressed the home button twice so he could close his applications, but noticed that the Notes App was open.

He hardly ever used it, but he saw that there was a massive block of text. Confused and curious, he clicked into it.

> **I got lost like five times. It wasn't fun, but LA is the coolest place ever?? So many people. Totally worth it. The café was amazing** **. I ordered waffles lol. Also, Felix is crazy, why are you friends with him?**
> 
> **There was a mean guy with a triangle beard at work today. He wanted a new computer because he spilled orange juice in his. Signe resolved it but got a smoothie dumped on her. I lent her my shirt! She was v grateful. You're welcome Jack.**
> 
> **JAck yOU hAs A coOler life than ME**
> 
> **\- Mark Fischbach**

_The fuck is with this format?_

And...Mark?

 _Mark_.

The dude from his flipping dream. The name on his flipping hand. The name he'd apparently called himself yesterday.

Suddenly everything made sense. Why he didn't remember anything from the day before, but had an unusually long and vivid dream. Why he'd been acting like a completely different person.

But at the same time, even more questions arose.

He lowered his phone and gazed into the faraway distance in Cry's direction, who looked unnerved. "Holy shit," he murmured, "I'm body swapping with Mark Fischbach in my dreams."


	6. Mark Hates Getting Over It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Months go by.

Over the next few chaotic months of winter, Jack and Mark developed a system that they easily fell into. They figured out each other's schedules, which people they were friends with, and generally how the other was supposed to act.

People stopped asking if they were okay, and the dream swapping became a welcome experience every time it happened, which was a few times a week.

They both kept written records of what they'd done in each other's bodies. Mark typed stupid notes on Jack's phone with an abundance of emojis and acronyms, and Jack wrote in the back pages of a math notebook Mark used five years ago, since he preferred paper and pen.

The most important part of their situation — and the most amusing — were the ground rules. They kept adding and adding to it, and most were not even rules, but reprimands in capital letters for not following them.

The most important rule that Jack had given Mark was to not fuck up his relationship with Signe, which the American seemed to take as an initiative to actually engage her in... _conversation_.

Jack shuddered.

Sitting on the bench in Mark's body, he took out his phone, reading the rules Mark had typed into the Notes App with his thick fingers. It wasn't like he didn't know them, or that he was actively trying to break them all to annoy Mark. Now that he thought about it, it wasn't any reason at all but that Mark's writing was endearing.

 

> **• Stop gawking at the sky it's just a sky**
> 
> **• Stop re-adding Ethan as a contact he can go fuck himself**
> 
> **• Also fuck u for making everyone think I'm crazy**
> 
> **• Stop organizing my room and folding everything**
> 
> **• DON'T ASSAULT MY BICEPS IN FRONT OF MY SISTERS**

Okay these first few weren't very endearing, but they were funny.

Especially since Ethan sent him a text at that very moment. Mark had deleted his number again, it seemed. Jack added him and read the message.

Ethan was asking whether Jack was coming to their spot before school or if he was still sleeping.

Jack texted back.

**Already there doofus**

 

> **Lol u liar**
> 
> **...are you really?**

Jack sent him a picture of his shoes and the cobblestones as proof.

 

> **The fuck.**
> 
> **Okay wait don't leave without us**
> 
> **Tyler was being lazy and I had to go find him**

**Pineapple on pizza is great**

 

> **What do you want, Mark?**

**Nothing. It's just a sudden change of heart**

Jack snickered to himself. Mark was going to flip out when he saw this.

⋆✵⋆

Mark was mostly on his own with the customers. Signe had cashier duty, Cry was cleaning someone's computer fan, and Robin was roaming the second floor.

He tried to work as hard as he could, since Jack had already made him work overtime a few times to make up for the money he'd blown on ice cream, chocolate cake, and root beer floats, since he was "a freak who would eat shit as long as it was served on a nice plate by a hot waiter."

It wasn't  _his_  fault that Avalon didn't have cafés.

"Will my granddaughter like this tablet?" an old lady was asking him, bringing him out of his thoughts. She was squinting at the electronic devices laid out on a table.

"Um, how old is she?" Mark asked, trying to figure out what exactly the device did and why it was different from all the others.

"Fourteen," she answered primly.

"Uh, probably. I'd be pretty happy if I got that for my birthday."

She peered at him, "But you're not a fourteen-year-old girl."

"Yes he is," Cry called from his work table.

Mark smiled politely at the lady, resisting the urge to slap Cry in the head. Honestly, just because Cry was the only other high schooler working here did  _not_  give him the right to punch holes in his masculinity.

"My granddaughter likes drawing," the lady murmured, possibly not hearing what his coworker-with-a-death-wish had said.

"We have drawing tablets," Mark said, glad to be knowledgeable about something.

"What are those?"

Mark tried to explain what made them different from pen and paper, but was saved when Signe came over, with Cry taking cashier duty.

She told the lady about the tablet effortlessly, and lead her to some other related products and pointed out the pros and cons of each.

"Nice job not staring at Signe this time, Jack," Cry snickered at him.

"Oh, right," Mark flushed. He'd completely forgotten that Jack had a mad crush on her. Should he be staring at her? It felt weird doing that.

Then he remembered that Jack had specifically instructed him to  _not_  do that. Jack had a lot of dumb rules.

Cry started ringing up a girl's headphones, and Mark wandered off to help a man find the right charger.

Yawning when his shift finally ended, Mark changed out of his uniform and put on a grey sweatshirt.

He and Signe happened to leave at the same time, and in the same direction too.

She gleefully showed him a video of a puppy on her phone, and he  _awwed_  appropriately.

They were about to part ways at a street corner when Mark was struck with a sneaky little urge to help Jack along with his relationship. "Hey Signe..."

⋆✵⋆

Jack woke up in own body and stretched, turning off the ringing alarm clock. Once he was more awake, he snatched up his phone and opened his Notes to see what Mark had done:

 **Had 2 coffees with Signe today!!** **We've got quite the thing going if I don't say so myself**

Jack's eyes popped open, and he nearly flopped off his bed. "MARK!" he shrieked.

He threw off the covers and saw thick black words written down his arm,  **Signe said your green hair is cute hair btw, I 80% disagree**

"Quit messing with my love life!" he hissed to the empty room, blushing hotly.

⋆✵⋆

Mark flipped open his notebook of Jack's daily reports and read the last day's events while stumbling down the stairs. Jack had horrible handwriting.

The notebook read:

_Had dinner with the fam. We talked a lot about your childhood, Mark. I didn't know you used to have a crush on Tyler._

He blinked, then threw the notebook at the ground floor. "WHAT!"

Kathryn shouted back, "Found hickeys on your arms again?"

Mark checked his spotted arm and silently cursed the Irish bastard. He stormed down the stairs, scooped up the fallen notebook, and with a heavy sigh, sat in his chair at the table.

Amy looked up to greet him, only to stare at something on his cheek. "Why...why did you write 'asshole' on your own face?"

 _SEAN MCLOUGHLIN_ , he screamed in his head.

⋆✵⋆

Felix sipped his cup of coffee and eyed Jack from across the table. "You sure like cafés all of a sudden."

"Do I?" he said absently, munching on the free breadsticks and favoriting things on Twitter.

The bell at the door rang, and a waitress rushed to greet the two boys coming in.

Jack recognized them as Brandon and Robert, and gave them a little wave.

Brandon nodded and did a short wave back. Robert did a nervous wave while flaming up like a tomato. He quickly pushed Brandon towards their table, avoiding eye contact.

"Uh..." Jack tapped the table to get his friends' attention. "Is Robert okay?"

Felix looked at the Canadian, then raised his eyebrows, "He must be flustered after all the flirting you did with him yesterday."

Jack choked on his breadstick and hacked violently.

 _MARK . EDWARD. FISCHBACH!_  he thought angrily.

⋆✵⋆

Two days later, Jack woke up in Mark's body, and he sleepily started examining his arm muscles very closely. They were just...so  _muscular_.

Amy opened the door, and regarded his actions, unsurprised. "You sure love your arms. Now get downstairs."

He roamed over to the bathroom, and after admiring his jaw in the mirror for five minutes straight, found a note beside the toothpaste.

> _To Jack,_ _how's it going with Signe? I feel like my charms are winning her over. Hmm maybe you're single because you're not me...hmmmm_

Jack snorted, rolling his eyes at it. "Yeah right, Mark."

He flipped it over and found that there were yet more words:

_Also,_ _you know it's not a crime to take a long shower while in my body. I know I'm very hot to look at, so—_

"Nope nope nope nope nope," he hurriedly flushed it down the toilet.

⋆✵⋆

Mark skipped over to Jack's breakfast table, humming and pouring himself a bowl of Rice Krispies.

Jack's father came into the dining room dressed and with a briefcase in hand, checking his watch. "Have a nice day, Sean," he said absently, then suddenly stopped and stared at him. "Also..." he averted his eyes, "please don't forget to put on some pants and trousers before you leave."

Mark looked down.

_Oh._

⋆✵⋆

"I don't like this level," Jack groaned, throwing the controller beside the couch. He was playing the old  _Crash Bandicoot_  at Ethan's place, and the blasted bandicoot  _continued to fall off the bridge_. He grabbed a pillow and groaned his frustration into it.

"More, more," Ethan urged, clapping his hands.

"What?" Jack asked, lifting half his face so he could look at him.

The other boy was making a  _go on_  gesture, "Where's that uncontainable Mark Fischbach rage that I find so entertaining?"

"Not here, not now," Jack closed his eyes and laughed, relieving some of the tension, "I am remaining calm. I've played this a million times; I can do this."

Ethan uneasily patted him on the back, "Just don't burst a blood vessel, buddy."

⋆✵⋆

"I HAAAATE THIS GAAAME!!!" Mark screamed, picking up the chair and shaking it.

"JACK!" Felix cried, grabbing his arm. "You absolute mad lad! Put the chair down!"

"FUCKKKK YOUUUU!!" Mark yelled, slamming the chair to the floor and breathing hard.

Felix stared at him, laughing, "I have never seen your face go this red. Sit down, man." He slapped a water bottle into his chest, "Drink this. I'll play for a while."

The American seethed into the water, angrily flipping off the computer monitor over and over. They were playing  _Getting Over It_  on Felix's desktop computer, and Mark had never played anything like it. And he wished he never had.

He was never getting his compassion back after this.

Within ten minutes Felix had also been reduced to alien yelling and mop-waving, and then the two were both screaming at the house to vent their hatred.

⋆✵⋆

Sitting in his classroom, Jack was going to collapse, or physically go insane. Yesterday Signe had randomly called him afterschool to talk about her day. The conversation had lasted a whole hour.

Sooner or later Mark was going to end up setting them up on a  _date_  and he  _wasn't ready._

Felix snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"What?" Jack asked, feigning annoyance.

His friend pointed at his notebook. "Jackaboy, this is Chem, not Physics."

Jack looked down and saw that he'd been idly drawing a diagram of an electric field. "Fuck. Mark's rubbing off on me." Turns out sitting through the American's classes in school made him  _learn_  things.

Terrifying.

Felix squinted at him, "Okay who is  _Mark_? I think you mention this guy a lot."

Jack considered telling him. He figured he'd believe him, but...it was something he wanted to keep between him and Mark. Just for now. "He's no one special."  _It's true, he's an egotistical goofball_ , he thought. "He's a friend I met in a...group chat."

"Oh," Felix said, considering this, "how boring. Good luck wooing him."

"It's—what?! Hey!"

Cheeks flaming, Jack hit at him, and Felix laughed and cowered under a textbook, " _Stoppp!!_  You're so violent! I'm filing for divorce!"

"Go ahead, you little bitch!"

" _Jack_ ," the Chemistry teacher interrupted, sighing at the front of the room. "Quiet down. You too Felix."

"Sorry," Jack grinned, kicking a snickering Felix in the shin.

⋆✵⋆

**Why don't you have a boyfriend then, hm?**

Mark glared at the bold words on his forearm.

How dare he—

The audacity—

Excuse me—

He was—

HE COULD GET ONE IF HE WANTED TO.

It's just that...

Mark sighed, staring at the words. "Because you live in Los Angeles, asshole."


	7. Shrines and Dates

Jack messily gobbled up his egg and bacon sandwich, to the chagrin of everyone around him. Mark's mother shot him a disapprovingly look, and he quickly slowed down.

"Sorry," he mumbled, hand over his mouth.

Amy and Kathryn were watching the news, which showed some kind of comet that was visible in the sky.

He made a mental note to look at the sky some more later, and downed his mug of coffee.

⋆✵⋆

"Where are we going?" Jack huffed, trying to keep up with Mark's mom. The stepsisters lagged behind, snapping pictures of the beautiful scenery and singing a song off-key.

Mark's mom shot him a cryptic glance, and explained, "The shrine of Jacheongbi."

He nodded, pretending to understand.

By some miracle, she continued to explain, "She's the goddess of earth, but also love. Her story is hard. She disguised herself as a man so she could get a higher education, and went to school with a man she fell in love with — Mun, the son of the Emperor of Heaven. She went through many tests to prove her love to his father. And when Mun was still commanded to spend half his time in the Garden of Heaven, she let him, confident in their entwined fates."

Jack was intrigued, "So they were like soulmates, right?"

She looked pleased, "Yes. And of course, being the son of the Emperor, Mun was greatly envied. Someone named Ilcheonseonbi ended up killing him, but Jacheongbi traveled to the Flower Garden to pick a Resurrection Flower to bring Mun back to life."

Jack let out a small laugh, "If only that could happen in reality."

An odd look passed over her face, before it turned to sorrow.

He was suddenly struck with the realization that she had lost her own husband, along with his new wife. "S-sorry," he apologized, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

She smiled warmly, "It's alright...Mark."

"Maaarkimoo!!" Amy popped up behind him. "Getting tired?"

"Getting hungry," he corrected her. It was true.

"Let's take a break," Mark's mom decided.

The four of them sat on the top of a hill under a tree, where they had a fantastic view of the harbor. The water was as blue as the sky, but deeper, and on it, sunlight glittered like tiny diamonds had been scattered all over it.

Kathryn handed him a Tupperware container full of rice ball cake, which he eagerly inhaled. He turned back to the view, and saw her looking at him out of the corner of his eye. "You act like you've never seen the harbor," she said suspiciously.

"It's really beautiful from here," Jack defended. "I'm just appreciating it every once and a while."

Amy shot him a curious look, "You've never done that before. It's a nice change from Los Angeles this or Los Angeles that."

"Every place has its pros and cons," Jack said, finishing off the cake.

When they were done resting up, they still had a long ways to go. Jack was very thankful for Mark's stamina.

They came to a large clearing surrounded by trees, and in the middle of it, sat a tall stone structure. It didn't look like a shrine, and more like a gigantic rock that'd been chucked from heaven. There was an opening underneath it, which he assumed lead to a cave or something.

To get to it, they crossed a slow winding river by walking on the gray rocks embedded in the riverbed.

"It's like the river in the Underworld," Amy pointed out. Kathryn nodded, and Jack stared back at the water, wondering what world he'd just left behind.

Kathryn was the first to duck under the big rock, and Amy followed, close behind.

Mark's mom turned to look at him, eyes probably a little too intelligent, "You know, in exchange for returning to this world, you must leave behind what is most important to you." She reached into her handbag and pressed a jade pendant shaped like an ox into his hand, only the cord that was supposed to go through the space between its horns were missing.

"You told me you lost the string one day," she shrugged, "I don't know how, but you did." She tapped the murky green stone, "You'll offer it to Jacheongbi. You've had it since you were born, and after that ritual we did, it is a part of you. It contains half of your soul."

He stared at the animal wrapped in his hand, which apparently had Mark's soul in it, like a Horcrux from  _Harry Potter_. He was pretty sure he'd seen this ox thing a hundred times, but couldn't remember where...Mark's bedside table maybe? Maybe Mark had been wearing it before. It was always so hard to recall the memories of his dreams.

A different memory, an important one, was tugging at the back of Jack's mind. It was like looking out over a sea of familiar faces, but only one was calling his name. He knew that he had memory in his mind, clear as day, but couldn't figure out which one it was among all the others.

Upon looking up he noticed that everyone had gone into the shrine, and he quickly went in.

As per the instructions he was given, Jack laid the pendant on a tiny altar. He noticed that there were already three other animals on them: a rabbit, dragon, and another dragon, which was noticeably dustier than the others.

Mark's mom saw him looking at it, "That one's mine."

"Yours looks cooler," Jack mumbled.

She snorted, "That's not important, Mark."

Jack looked at the sisters and saw that Kathryn was pouring out four tiny cups of some drink.

" _Bokjan._ Purified wine," Mark's mother whispered. "It is what allows the communion between god and man." Jack didn't know why she knew to explain everything to him, but he was thankful.

Kathryn handed her a cup, which she passed on to Jack, "Just a taste is enough. We don't want you having a heart attack."

"What?" he asked, taking it warily. Everyone ignored him.

Mindful of his apparent risk of death, he took a tiny lick of the wine and gave the cup to Kathryn. Soon enough, there were leaving, and the four jade animals were left sitting on the altar.

⋆✵⋆

They hiked back half an hour later.

The Avalon harbor was even more beautiful at twilight. The sun threw brilliant rays of light all over the sky and water, giving everything a warm autumn color. A flock of bluebirds soared over the trees, and the air was filled with the sounds of nature.

" _Eoseuleum_ ," Amy said, standing beside him.

"What?" he asked, half-thinking that she was clearing her throat.

She rolled her eyes, "You really need to brush up on your Korean, Mark. It means twilight."

"Yes," Mark's mom agreed. " _Eoseuleum_  is when the world blurs and one might encounter something not human."

"That's a better story prompt than  _Twilight_ ," Jack joked, and the sisters laughed.

"Oh!" Kathryn squealed. "Maybe we can see the comet now!" She strained her eyes at the warm sky, and Amy did the same.

The word  _comet_  struck him in a way he couldn't understand, and he gazed blankly at the sparkling water. He turned when he heard Mark's mom calling him, "Mark..." she murmured softly, "you're dreaming, aren't you?"

⋆✵⋆

The next day, Jack awoke with a shock.

Inexplicably, he felt tears drip down his cheeks and down his neck. He brought up a hand to wipe at them, "Why am I crying...?"

It'd happened to him a few times, and he always woke with a terrible feeling of loss. This time was no exception, though it went as quickly as it came.

He rubbed his eyes and picked up his phone from his desk, seeing that he had text messages awaiting him.

> **Felix says: GL on our date fam**
> 
> **Felix** **says: Shit I mean your***
> 
> **Signe says: On my way!**

Jack panicked and threw his phone onto the bed, waving his arms around crazily. "DATE?!" he gasped. "SIGNE?!" he gasped again.

 _What did Mark do this time?_  he thought, frantically grabbing the phone again and opening Notes:

> **Lololol going on a date with Signe 2moro!!**

Jack slapped himself with a pillow.

> **Get to the metro station @ 10 am! I hope you're the one who ends up going, not me. If I go, well, sucks to be u haha.**

⋆✵⋆

Mark stared at himself in his bathroom mirror. He was in the middle of adjusting his ox necklace when he noticed the tears falling down his face.

He frowned in confusion, wiping them away along with the empty feeling that came with it.

He put on his glasses — which Jack almost  _always_  forgot to put on, despite everything in front of him becoming fuzzy otherwise. But to be fair, Mark always forgot to put on Jack's glasses too.

Inescapably, his thoughts always wandered to Jack.  _He should be on his date by now_... _lucky him. I hope they have fun._

As he dug through his closet for a clean shirt to wear to the Chinese New Year festival, he cursed himself for feeling so sad that Jack was on a date.

⋆✵⋆

The date was probably going fine. Jack couldn't really tell; he hadn't been on one before.

Signe had met him at the station, clad in a loose pinstriped white shirt, black leggings, a black wide-brimmed hat, and black ankle boots with a thousand buckles on them.

"Um," he'd said.

She'd laughed and dragged him away.

They had a burger lunch at the Natural History Museum's grill before exploring the exhibits.

They talked a lot, but honestly, Jack was just too nervous and intimated to relax.

She seemed to notice this, and smiled reassuringly, and they browsed the museum in companionable silence.

Then they were back at the Expo Park/USC station.

Jack asked if she wanted to also eat dinner with him, but she smiled and shook her head. "That's okay, but I had a good time, really."

"I'm glad you did," Jack grinned shyly, hands in his pockets.

Signe turned, as if to leave, then changed her mind. "I'd like to ask you something."

He spread his arms, "Go ahead."

She anxiously brushed a strand of her curly brown hair behind her ear. "I'm so sorry if I'm wrong, but...you used to have a crush on me, right?"

Jack felt himself go pale, "Um...yeah. Was it obvious?"

She laughed, "Very obvious, yes, and that's why I even noticed. It's hard to believe that someone would like somebody like me."

"Signe," he protested, shocked, "you're amazing. Why wouldn't someone like you?"

She shrugged sadly, "Lots of reasons, but it's okay. Anyway, you don't like me like that anymore, do you?"

Jack thought it over. Whatever he'd felt before, it wasn't as strong anymore. "I guess not."

"I think you've found someone else," she smiled. "And they've changed you a lot."

He flushed, never having thought that Mark would've had a big impact on him, but he had. Even though they've never met or even texted, Jack cared about him. A lot.

Signe adjusted her hat. "Sorry if I uh, made you uncomfortable. So...I'll be leaving now. Good luck with this person, and I'll see you at work, okay?"

"Of course," Jack nodded, then before she could leave, added, "and if you want to talk to me, you can. Anytime."

Her eyes searched him, and she smiled again, "Thank you, Sean. I will."

She disappeared into the station, and Jack leaned against the sign, staring at the passerby.

He pulled up his phone and slowly typed in Mark's number. A few days ago he had Mark type it down in his Notes, so he had him as a contact. He'd never actually called or texted him before, though.

It felt weird to do it. Sometimes Jack even wondered if it was all just an elaborate dream, and Mark didn't actually exist. But that wasn't true. His contact was right there in front of him.

He pressed the green call button, and waited.

"The number you have dialed has been disconnected or is no longer in service. Please check your number, and —"

Jack hung up and tried again, but with the same result. The town Mark lived in  _did_  have bad signal most of the time, so he chalked it up to that.

⋆✵⋆

"Maaark," Amy grabbed his arm, tugging him along. Then she stopped, "Hey, you okay?"

"Oh, yeah," Mark nodded, staring blankly at the red lanterns people were lighting to decorate the market stalls. Cute sheep made of all kinds of materials also adorned the place. It was going to be the Year of the Goat after all. "I'm just distracted."

"Well hurry up, there's this great spot where we can watch the comet and fireworks!"

Mark let himself get yanked across town onto a grassy plain. The wind rustled through the sprawling fields, and the sky was a brilliant deep blue.

Stars and unknown constellations dotted the heavens, and Mark finally realized why Jack liked looking up so much.  _Avalon_ is _pretty nice_ , he thought privately.

Amy pranced off to Kathryn and her friends, leaving him alone.

"Hey Mark!" Ethan's voice came up behind him. "Damn, the comet's beautiful, huh? Tyler's helping his dad set up the fireworks. The sky tonight's going to be awesome."

"You're not helping him?" Mark asked, turning away from the amazing view to raise a questioning eyebrow in his friend's direction.

Ethan sighed deeply, hazel eyes turned skywards, "He asked me the same thing."

"I sure did, you shit," Tyler agreed, appearing beside them. "I brought a blanket."

Ethan helped him spread it out, and the three of them settled themselves on it, leaning back on their elbows and appreciating the breathtaking view. Then, to their wonderment, the comet broke into two.

"Hey, it's splitting!" Ethan yelled excitedly, shaking Tyler by the arm. "What does that mean?"

"Double comets?" Tyler laughed. He nudged Ethan, "Get it?"

Ethan giggled, "Double rainbow!"

Mark wasn't sure what he was feeling. All he knew was that the comets were beautiful — two spectacular multicolored tails of green, blue, purple, and blazing red.

⋆✵⋆

Back in his room and about to give up and just sleep, Jack tried calling Mark again.

"The number you have dialed has been —"

He turned off his phone and put it on his desk to charge, then flopped onto his bed, face-up. The blue curtains by his side were open a crack. It bothered him, so he sat up again to shut them.

He called to mind what Mark had written at the end of the Notes:

> **P.S. By the end of the date u should be able to see the comet!!**

Jack opened the drapes and peered up at the sky. Since he lived in a fairly high-up apartment, not many structures were in the way. It was a nice starless dark blue outside, and the buildings were lit up like glowing checkerboards.

No comet, though.

"Mark, are you high?" he asked to himself. He tried to remember if there was anything about a comet in his dream-swapping.

He couldn't recall. Dreams were fleeting like that.

Jack sighed and lay back down, leaving the curtain open. If ringing Mark's phone wasn't going to work, at least he could still switch bodies with him. He closed his eyes.

 

But weeks went by, and it never happened.


	8. Finding Answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late late update! The school gods were not being nice to me. I hope you like this chapter, though you probably won't because muahaha

"Signe?"

She turned around, in the middle of putting on her black purse. They were the only ones in the employee's only room. Robin and the others had already left, leaving them to close up. She smiled genially, "Yeah?"

It'd been three weeks since Jack had stopped switching with Mark, and he was getting worried and desperate. "Are you free today?"

She nodded, "I am, why?"

"I uh," Jack hesitated. He was fully aware of how weird a request this was going to be. "Can you teach me how to draw?"

She started, surprised. Then she opened the door, indicating for him to follow. "Sure, why not?"

Jack rushed after her, and the two of them stepped out of the big store. Signe locked the glass doors and pocketed the keys while Jack rolled down the metal shutters.

"What do you want to draw?" Signe asked. "People? Landscapes?"

"Landscapes."

"You wanna like, do it right now? Or...?"

"Right now would be great. If you can."

"At my place? I have supplies and stuff."

"Okay."

She shot him a curious look, leading him to her car. Apparently she'd driven to work today.

Jack was suddenly struck with the reminder that she was older than him. He was seventeen and had his learner's permit, but not a full license. He slid into the seat beside her.

Signe turned the key and put it in reverse, slowly inching her way out of the parallel parking spot. "So what's with the sudden interest in art? Got a school project?"

He flushed, "No. It's more of a personal thing." He tried to explain without sounding like he'd completely and hopelessly lost his mind. "So I keep dreaming about this place. Like, repeatedly. There's this guy in it too who always appears. I'm trying to find him."

She frowned at him in the rearview mirror, "You see this guy...in dreams?"

"It's complicated. Like,  _really_  complicated. I don't even fully understand it. But the dreams are real. And the weird thing is, I feel like I've seen the place before. Déjà vu or something."

He was rambling, trying to make sense of all his thoughts. He waited for Signe to ask if he was alright, to put a hand over his forehead and check his temperature. Maybe she'd even tell him to leave her car.

"Okay," Signe shrugged, turning the wheel and making a sharp turn to the right. "What does this have to do with sketching?"

"I don't remember what the town is called," Jack admitted. "I've searched through a whole bunch of images and maps but nothing's familiar. I want to be able to draw the town and get it on paper...so I don't forget it. I could even use it to ask around — see if anyone recognizes the place."

She nodded. "So I uh, I don't really understand your whole dream thing. But that's cool. I'll teach you what you need to know. It might take a while before you can draw realistically though."

"That's fine. I'm not in a real hurry."

Or should he be? It's not like Mark was in trouble. Jack just wanted to see him as fast as possible.

⋆✵⋆

Slowly, Jack learned.

Getting the sizes and placements right would've been torture if it wasn't for Signe patiently teaching him her ways.

In two more weeks he'd managed to sketch out the harbor and its surrounding houses and mountains. It was so much more accurate than he ever thought he'd make it.

He and Signe, he was proud to say, had also become great friends.

She beamed happily upon seeing his finished work, "It's great, Jack. You're a fast learner. Good luck with finding Mark."

"Thank you." Jack gave her a big warm hug, which she returned with just as much enthusiasm.

⋆✵⋆

Jack shouldered his backpack, flicking through the metro map on his phone. He was at the station, figuring out which path he should take first.

His eyes went down to his left wrist, where a fancy braided red cord was wrapped around it. He'd found it in a drawer early this morning and decided to wear it. Something was bugging him about it, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Wild running footsteps and a hard clap on the shoulder nearly made him drop the phone.

"Top of the morning to ya!" Felix shrieked in his ear.

"JAYSUS!" Jack yelled, windmilling backwards. "What are you doing here?"

"Why, we're here to join my favorite Irish cream puff on his adventure!"

"Wait, ' _we'?"_ Jack scanned the area and spotted a pink-haired Marzia power-walking towards them in the distance, shouting for Felix to wait up.

Then a thought struck Jack in the face, "Wait, I told you to cover my shift!"

"Oh relax, green bean. I paid Ken to do it. Look," he dug into his pocket and brought out his red Honor 7X smartphone. "Oh hey, he sent me a video from work."

He clicked it and showed it to him.

Jack stared as a guy with glasses and a light beard grinned and waved at the camera, "Heyy I'm doing the computer stuff! Tell Jack not to worry."

The clip ended, and Felix looked at him triumphantly.

"Felix," Jack sighed, "that was Brad."

"Oh." Felix checked the video, then clicked out of it and scrolled through some texts. "Looks like Ken paid Brad to do it. Wait no, Ken paid PJ, and then PJ paid Michael. Then Sive —"

"Okay I get it," Jack rolled his eyes. "As long as it's covered. Still, why are you here?"

"I told you!" Felix sniffed indignantly. "You said you were going on a trip to find something and we decided to join. I mean, it's Spring Break. I don't have anything to do. Neither does Marzia."

A few steps away, Marzia panted, leaning on her suitcase. "That's true." She hit Felix in the arm, "Don't go so fast! You left me with the suitcase!"

Felix cowered, "Sorry!" He did the praying hands and bowed, "Please forgive me wahman."

Marzia giggled, and Jack tried to pretend he didn't know them, and walked off to the ticket machine.

"So explain to me what this is about," Felix said, hopping over and watching him buy the tickets.

"I met a person online," Jack told him finally.

"Oh, the Mark guy?"

"Yeah," Jack nodded, surprised he remembered. He decided to give Felix the story he'd come up with, which made a lot more sense than what he told Signe. "So we lost contact with each other. He'd sent me a few photos of his town before so I know what it looks like, though I don't have the pictures anymore. I'm going to find the place."

Felix stared at him wordlessly. "Do you have a basic idea where it is? Like, is it in the south, or...?"

"Not really."

"Have you tried Google Maps? Like, street view and stuff?"

Jack shook his head, "I did try, but I couldn't find it. It's a really rural place."

Felix frowned, "But it's in California right?"

"I think so." He pocketed the tickets and pulled a tightly-rolled piece of paper out of his backpack. "Here."

His two friends leaned in, staring at the rough pencil sketch.

"Didn't know you could draw this well," Felix muttered.

Marzia's comment was more helpful. "Well, it's obviously near a huge body of water. It's not a lake, is it?"

"No," Jack replied. "At least, I don't think so."

Her perfect brows furrowed, "We'd need to catch a ferry. Try the coastline and some islands."

⋆✵⋆

They spent the next week travelling around the coast California and various islands. Despite Jack's unexplained sense of urgency, he had fun. They visited a lot of cool places, though Felix didn't find the boat rides very fun, since he got seasick.

Marzia took care of the hotels, train routes, bus rides, and ferry tickets. Jack occupied himself with asking people if they recognized the drawings, and doing more extensive researching on the Internet. Felix played mobile games and constantly called up his friends to check who was dogsitting his pugs and to rate memes with them.

They were in a motel, about to have dinner. Marzia was folding clothes, and Jack was on his laptop.

Marzia shoved the garments into a suitcase. Sighing, she stood up. "Wait, where's Felix?" she scanned the small room.

Jack blinked. His friend seemed to have totally disappeared.

"Oh, I know where he is," Marzia grumbled, walking to the end of the room.

Felix came bursting out of the closet like a deranged orangutan, " _REEEEEEEEE!!!"_

"Oh my god!" Marzia shrieked loudly. She hit him in the arm, "I knew it I knew it!! I hate you!"

Jack tried to mask his laughter, really glad that Felix had decided to come with him. "Why did I let you come along, again?"

"Because  _I'm_  the one providing  _all_  the entertainment!" Felix cried, flopping onto the bed.

Marzia frowned disapprovingly at him, "Have you found a place to have dinner yet?"

"Uh...no," Felix quickly picked up the map the hotel had given them and opened it up. "I'm working on it."

A few minutes passed without any more random outbursts.

"Do you think the spaghet meme is going to die soon?" Felix asked Jack suddenly. "I'm scared that it's becoming immortal."

Jack shrugged, half-listening. "I don't know, man." He clicked around randomly on Google Maps, but came to a stop when he spied a particular restaurant. He clicked on a link, and, after reading scrolling through the page with wide eyes, reached for the hotel's complimentary notepad.

"Found something?" Felix asked, coming over. He leaned on the desk and squinted at what he was writing. "An address?"

"Yeah, a place to eat." He handed the note to him, "Help me figure out how to get there, okay? Thanks."

"Now I'm a slave," Felix grumbled, but did as he was asked.

⋆✵⋆

The restaurant was quaint. The theme was a forest green, and had simple décor. It was really for breakfast and brunch, but Jack didn't mind having a plate of smoked chicken sandwiches with a side of fries for dinner.

Felix inhaled his burger. "This is better than burritos," he announced. "Very nice," he made an OK sign, then reached for the ranch.

Marzia snatched it away, setting it down beside her salad, "Stop eating the ranch!"

Jack ignored them both, and read a little blurb on the back of the menu about the restaurant's three owners.

From what he'd seen and read, they were a young married couple of around age twenty-six, and a father, and they'd named the restaurant after themselves.

 **The**   **Patricks**.

Jack recognized the name. He swore that he'd seen the couple around the town Mark lived in. The guy, he remembered, had been very obsessed with  _Five Nights At Freddy's 3_. He wasn't so sure about the dad, but...Patricks...he was sure that he'd seen a little convenience store with that name, in the exact font. That was what caught his attention when he'd seen the restaurant's Facebook page.

A guy a bit older than them came to collect Felix's plate. His nametag read  **Matthew**. "Liking your food?"

"Oh yeah," the Swede nodded. "It was delicious."

Matthew smiled, then turned to leave them alone. Before he could, Jack worked up the courage to ask, "Hey, did you always live here? In this city, I mean?"

"No, actually, I lived in North Carolina for a bit because of college."

"And before that?" He prayed that his memory was correct, or this would get majorly awkward.

Matthew had taken the question in stride at first, but now he turned uncomfortable. "I used to live in a...less busy place."

He was about to run off, but Jack quickly brought out the drawing. "Can you look at this?"

Matthew peered at it, and his mouth dropped open. "Hey, that's Avalon! How do you know what it looked like?"

"I uh," Jack stammered. "Someone sent me a few pictures of the place, and I remember seeing a convenience store named The Patricks with a similar theme."

"Oh, that's right. My parents ran that store," the waiter's manner became sad. "My mom died in that disaster while I was out travelling with Steph and my dad. It's a place of...sad memories for us."

"Disaster?" Jack blanched.

Matthew didn't hear him, and called out into the kitchen, "Hey Steph! Can you come out for a sec?"

"One moment!" a voice yelled back.

Felix was rapidly typing into his phone, and Marzia gave Jack a scared look.

"Can I see it more closely?" Matthew asked politely, setting Felix's plate down on an empty nearby table.

Jack passed it to him, and whispered to Marzia, "What is it? Where's Avalon?"

"I...I'm not sure," she mumbled, "Felix is looking it up right now. I hope I'm wrong..."

Stephanie Patrick appeared out of the kitchen. She had wavy brown hair and a friendly charisma, and was also a few months pregnant. "What is it?"

Matthew showed her the picture, "Isn't this exactly what Avalon used to be like?"

"Wow," she remarked, obviously impressed. "Who drew that?"

Matthew pointed at Jack, and his wife began to compliment him, but Jack wasn't listening. He was staring as Felix's expression changed from dread to horror to confusion.

Felix slowly met Jack's eyes. Jack knew that there was nothing but bad news waiting for him.

Matthew returned the picture, smiling sadly. "That's a really nice drawing. Thanks for showing it to us." The couple walked back into the kitchen, chatting idly with each other.

"Jack..." Felix spoke softly.

"Just tell me," Jack pleaded, the suspense killing him.

Felix slid his phone over to him, the screen displaying a Wikipedia article. "Avalon...it was destroyed by a fragment from Comet Tiamat three years ago. A third of its population died."

⋆✵⋆

Jack was in the public library at Catalina Island, reading old newspapers about the fate of its largest settlement, Avalon. He'd compared the monotone pictures with his drawing, and it was definitely the same harbor, though there was a crater right next to it. The high school was a mass of broken rock. The remains of the market stalls, which had been so brightly decorated for Chinese New Year, were dull and completely demolished.

It'd happened three years ago. Jack didn't understand how this could be possible, but all of a sudden it explained many things.

Ethan and Tyler didn't understand a lot of the references and jokes Jack made. The phones and video games they had all came out years ago. And most damning of all...in Mark's time, it was the Year of the Goat. He distinctly remembered the three sheep-themed lanterns that Tyler and Ethan had been making to parade around the festival with.

But for Jack it was 2018, and the Year of the Dog. The Year of the Goat had been 2015.

Marzia gently propped a book up in front of him, stirring him from his thoughts. The book was wide, with a dark black cover and forty or so thin pages.

It was called  **List of Casualties from Comet Tiamat**

She gave him a sympathetic frown while he processed the title. "Do you want me to look through it for you?"

"No no, it's okay."

He took the book and flipped it open. The names were in alphabetical order by last name. The first one he recognized was  **Wade Barnes**.

Swallowing, he turned to the Fs.

> **Amy Fischbach**
> 
> **Jason Thomas Fischbach**
> 
> **Julianna Fischbach**
> 
> **Kathryn Fischbach**
> 
> **Mark Edward Fischbach**

Impossible.

Mark Fischbach could not be dead.

Marzia saw the name too, "I'm sorry Jack." Felix appeared beside her, a mournful and worried expression on his face.

Still disbelieving, Jack flicked through the whole book. More names of the dead came up.

> **Bob Muyskens**
> 
> **Ethan Mark Nestor-Darling**
> 
> **Tyler Scheid**

He turned back to the Fs and tried not to cry. Mark's name glared at him, like the entire universe was mocking him for being three years too late.

Mark was long dead.


	9. Red String of Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack prays for a chance to get Mark back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the month-long wait! I was so hesitant to publish this because I didn't know if it was good enough to be worth the wait >.<  
> Hopefully the next chapter will come much sooner.

 Jack closed the book, pushing it to the other end of the table.

"No question about it?" Marzia asked timidly.

Jack sighed, gesturing vaguely at the book, "His name is right there under 'fatalities'. He's dead. So is every single person he's ever mentioned to me."

"Then..." Felix trailed off. "How is it possible that...?"

"I don't know," Jack muttered. "I have no idea what's going on. Can we go back to the motel?" He got up, pushing in the chair he'd been sitting on.

Marzia gathered up the books and put them in a library cart. Meanwhile, Felix wrapped him in a sympathetic hug.

⋆✵⋆

On the bus ride home, Jack opened the Notes app on his phone.

He saw the huge amount of text and emojis that Mark had left. He breathed a sigh of relief that was immediately cut short when the text all glitched out and disappeared one by one.

In seconds, the app was empty.

As if Mark had never existed.

⋆✵⋆

Though it was only the afternoon, Jack went to bed immediately after they got back to the motel. He wasn't tired, exactly, but overwhelmed. His brain needed a break.

The more he thought about everything, the more it seemed like he'd imagined the whole thing. Surely he'd seen the news report three years ago, and his mind got bored and whipped up a wacky dream scenario.

His friends had been quietly packing up their things and searching for another restaurant, but after an hour they began having a whispered conversation on the other side of the room, but he could hear them clearly.

"What do you think happened?" Felix softly.

There was a pause as Marzia contemplated her next words. "I think he got catfished."

"By someone pretending to be a dead person? That's just — that's the next level of cruel."

"I know...it's completely sick."

Felix sighed, "I feel like there has to be more to this than what Jack told us. Do you feel like he was holding back when he explained who Mark was?"

Marzia hesitated, "I don't know. He's your best friend, what do you think?"

"I know there's more to this. There has to be. I just have no idea what."

"Okay, well, you should wake him up. He needs to eat."

⋆✵⋆

They ended up ordering room service, which Jack was totally fine with.

While he chewed glumly on his club sandwich, not even processing the taste, Felix asked, "Hey Jack, when did you start wearing that bracelet?"

It was a strained effort at conversation, since Jack had been wearing it for more than a week now.

"Since we left LA," Jack answered dully. "I found it in my drawer and put it on. It looked interesting I guess."

"Cool," Felix said in a monotone, awkwardly going back to his pizza.

Something about his explanation made Jack examine the bracelet more closely. Yes, he'd found it in his bedside drawer, but how did he come across it in the first place?

Red braided bracelet. He'd worn it by wrapping it around his wrist and tying it off. It was really one long cord, with tiny silver clasps that joined the two ends, but they were broken. Like they'd been ripped apart.

And the cord was so thin and so plain, it was almost like...like there was supposed to be some kind of pendant on it.

_Like a jade ox._

He scarfed down the sandwich as fast as he could, to the utter fear and astonishment of Felix and Marzia, and hurried to his laptop.

If Mark turned 17 in 2014, he must've been born in 1997. He looked up the Chinese Zodiac signs, and sure enough, 1997 was the ox year.

_He wasn't imagining this._

Hadn't he also got a strange feeling when he, as Mark, had held the pendant in his hand by the shrine? As if he'd  _known_  what had happened to the red cord?

But how on earth had he gotten it?

And that's when it hit him.

Mark must have tried to find him, but since their timelines were out of sync, Jack hadn't recognized him.

Jack wracked his brain. Surely he could remember some hot stranger approaching him three years ago.

⋆✵⋆

_Jack was leaning against the wall in a metro station, scrolling through Facebook. He was on his way to Felix's flat, where they planned to play as many video games together as they could before Spring Break ended._

_The train came to a stop, and he lifted himself off the wall and made his way onto the subway._

_"Hey!" someone yelled, jumping on right after him._

_Jack ignored the crazy person, until he heard the same voice call his name._

_He turned, staring at the boy, who was perhaps two or three years older than him. He had on a worn black T-shirt, glasses, and unruly dark hair._

_Jack didn't know who he was, and yet the guy was staring at him intensely as if he should._

_"Uh, I don't think I know you," Jack said slowly, extremely confused. "Who are you?"_

_He could see the guy's face fall completely. "Never mind," he shook his head unconvincingly, "I must have...made a mistake."_

_The brunet turned and got off the train. And suddenly Jack felt like he was_ missing _something. He was going to lose something._

_Jack leaped out of his seat and stopped the doors from closing, "Wait!"_

_The guy spun around, eyes wide and hopeful._

_"What's your name?" Jack blurted. He just had a feeling...that this was important._

_"Mark," he answered. "Mark Fischbach."_

_Jack couldn't place the name, but it felt right to know it._

_A station worker came over and sternly told Jack to either get inside or get out — that the train had to leave._

_Jack hesitated, staring at Mark and wondering why he was still talking to this guy, "I uh, can't miss this train."_

_"Right," Mark said sadly. Then he reached up and yanked at a necklace around his neck, snapping it right off. He took off a green pendant of some animal and shoved the cord into his hand. "My name's Mark. Remember me, okay?"_

_"Uh, sure. Of course." Jack stepped back, and the doors slid shut._

_He stared at the guy as the subway peeled away. He ran a hand through his brown hair, nearly knocking his hat off. "That was strange," he mumbled, and pocketed the red cord._

⋆✵⋆ _  
_

Jack remembered meeting Mark.

He'd  _met_  him, three years ago.

The thought was exhilarating, but it only lasted a few moments.

Because Mark was now  _dead_. He'd tried to find him the very day the comet hit. Jack wished he'd done something that day, though it was pointless — he hadn't had a clue what was going to happen.

He remembered the comet three years ago too. He'd watched it blaze across the sky in a burst of beautiful color with Felix on the roof of his apartment when they were freshmen.

To them, the comet had been nothing more, and nothing less, than a beautiful view.

Jack grit his teeth. What was the point of their switching if it couldn't save Mark?

No...it could. He could visit the shrine. It was a crazy idea, but everything to do with Mark seemed crazy, and this was so crazy it could work.

⋆✵⋆

At 6 AM, Jack left a note on the table beside Marzia's sleeping head:

_I have to go somewhere. Return to LA without me. I'll be back later. Thanks for everything - Jack_

He rented a bicycle, then rode a bus to the outskirts of the city. From there he biked to Avalon Bay, where the small town of Avalon used to be.

There was no questioning it. It was gone. There were two big circles of water now — the bay, and the place where the comet hit and water had flooded in.

Jack took a deep breath to calm himself, but the air still smelled the same as it used to. Still clean and fresh with nature despite the wreckage of the village.

This wasn't what he came to do.

Jack steeled himself and hopped on the bike, beginning the long ride to the shrine. He relied mainly on his blurry memory and the zoomed out satellite images from Google Maps, since Avalon was too rural to have a proper street view option. And once he'd set foot near the village, his phone had lost signal anyway.

It was an hour later when he found the shrine.

The rock looked exactly the same, albeit there was more moss growing over it. The winding river around it had gotten deeper and wider, but Jack had no trouble wading across.

He ducked under the low opening of the cave. And there, sitting on the small altar, were the four jade animals.

One of them was missing the red cord.

Any doubt at all that Mark existed vanished upon seeing them, and Jack nearly cried as a huge weight lifted off his shoulders.

This was his final chance to make things right. He was supposed to meet Mark for real, he knew it. He never thought to care about fate, or some outside force, but this event made him believe that maybe...some things were just meant to be.

He tentatively picked up the jade ox that contained half of Mark's soul. He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do with it now, but this was his only remaining option, and he had to try something.

Jack held the little pendant in his hands, trying to feel Mark inside it — the half that hadn't been lost. "If time can be reversed," he prayed, to no one in particular, "please give me a chance to save this town." Maybe he was addressing Jacheongbi, or God, or some other natural force. He was calling for help, and hoped the universe would give him this chance.

He was struck with a sudden dizziness, and he blacked out.

⋆✵⋆

He was floating. It felt like a dream, or some kind of vision, and he was a ghost. He was surrounded by dark emptiness, and he felt a tugging on his wrist. The red cord was pulling at him gently, and it had grown impossibly long, curling and twisting about in the endless abyss.

And just as fast as he'd come to, the void was filled with light.

The first thing he saw was Mark's mother. Thomas and his father were right beside her.

She was lying on a hospital bed, tears running down her face as she reached for something, and Jack sees that it's a healthy big baby with jet black hair.

 _Mark_.

The scene washed away, and a new one was painted in its place. It was little Mark and a teen Thomas playing video games as loud as they could to drown out the noise of their parents fighting.

Then Jack saw the four at their dinner table, the mother telling them that they were getting a divorce. Thomas had left the room immediately while a nine-year-old Mark burst into tears.

Next it was a funeral. Two gravestones stood side by side in a flowered meadow. Young Mark stood in front of them, staring blankly. Kathryn and Amy, even younger, cried into his hoodie. Mark's mother was right behind them, while Thomas was alone, off to the side.

The scene was replaced with an empty bedroom, with Mark, around fifteen, walking in. He looked shocked to find it empty. Jack realized it was Thomas's room. The mayor hadn't wanted to live with them anymore.

And then, much more recently, Jack saw seventeen-year-old Mark furiously reading the diary Jack kept in his math notebook, hissing to himself that  _No, for the last time, he never had a crush on Tyler. Ethan and Kathryn are liars. Amy is a liar. Everyone is a filthy liar except me._

"Where are you going?" Kathryn asked. The setting had changed to the road outside Mark's house. It was morning, and Mark was walking in the opposite direction as his stepsisters.

"LA," Mark answered after a few seconds of pause.

"As in  _Los Angeles_  LA?" Amy stared at him incredulously. "Right now?"

"Yeah, right now. I'll be back before the fireworks."

Last of all, Jack saw the pieces of the beautiful comet, surrounded by fireworks, streaking across the sky in vivid color. Mark was standing on a blue blanket next to his friends. Their eyes were wide with terror as burning fragments rained all around them, shaking the ground and throwing debris and bodies high into the air.

Jack shouted a desperate and hopeless warning, but then he was falling. And all he could see was the red string of fate.

⋆✵⋆

Jack woke up with a start. He expected to see the dark cave, but instead, he was in a bedroom.

A familiar one that wasn't his own.

He gasped, shooting upright. A smartphone was charging next to the lamp on the bedside table. The walls were cream-colored and an acoustic guitar rested on a wooden chair. The desk was a welcome disorganized mess, and a pair of pink-mustache-patterned boxer shorts was discarded on the floor.

"I'm Mark!" he whispered shrilly, throwing his arms up in celebration. "I'm alive! Mark's alive!"

He excitedly picked up Mark's phone, turning it on. It said  **Friday, February 20**.

To be sure, he unlocked it with his fingerprint and opened up the calendar. Yes, the year was 2015. The comet was going to hit  _tonight_.

He turned off the phone and admired himself in the reflection for a bit, marveling at the miracle that Mark was not dead. And so handsome too. He found himself tearing up with overwhelming relief and happiness.

The door opened, and Amy poked her head through, "Wake up, Mark—"

She froze. Jack must've looked absolutely insane. Salty teardrops traced his cheeks, and he was caught with his mouth on Mark's muscular bicep.

She backed off, "I'll just, uh, go..."

 _"Amy!"_  he wailed, throwing his arms out towards her. "You're alive! Can I hug you?!"

With a horrified scream, Amy slammed the door shut.


	10. Twilight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack, Ethan, and Tyler scramble to save Avalon's residents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the huge delay! Thank you all for the wonderful encouraging comments ♥

Jack knew that Mark had skipped school and gone to LA this morning. He wasn't doing that. He was going to save them all.

He leapt out of bed, throwing on Mark's clothes and going down to get a quick breakfast.

Amy and Kathryn gave each other furtive glances and avoided eye contact with him. Amy was mumbling to her plate, eyes glazed, "He's lost it. My brother's absolutely lost it."

Ignoring her, he scarfed down his eggs, texting Ethan and Tyler as he did.

> **Guys, get to the rendezvous place as fast as you can**
> 
> **It's urgent**

"Don't text at the table, Jack," Mark's mom scolded.

"Oh yeah, sorry." Jack dumped his plate in the sink and rushed out the door.

"You didn't bring your backpack!" Kathryn yelled after him.

"I don't need it!"

⋆✵⋆

Convincing his friends took a lot longer than he thought it would. And he wasn't even telling them about the switching.

Tyler seemed to believe him, but Ethan was still skeptical, insisting that it was a stupid prank.

"We can't go to school today," Jack concluded. "We need to prepare for the disaster."

Ethan sighed, "Okay, the moment you mention skipping school, I'm in."

"The primary school is the only place that's completely safe from impact. We've got to somehow direct everyone over there."

Ethan stared at him, and Jack realized that he was finally believing him. "Your brother can do that."

Jack agreed. "We also need food. A lot of it."

"We'll go to The Patricks," Tyler said. "You can count on us, Mark."

Ethan nodded resolutely.

Jack smiled gratefully, staring in the direction of the City Hall. "In the meantime, I'll go talk to the mayor."

⋆✵⋆

Thomas Fischbach was not a friendly man.

Jack wrenched open the office doors, ignoring the shouts of the other workers at City Hall.

"Thomas!" he shouted, going straight to the desk.

The mayor's eyes bulged upon seeing him. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in school!"

Jack steeled himself, "The comet is going to split, and pieces of it are going to fall onto the town. We need to get everyone to the elementary school!"

Thomas's eyes narrowed, "And how do you know this? Are you an expert meteorologist?"

"No," Jack admitted, "but it's going to. Our town's going to be destroyed, and a third of us are going to die unless we do something about it."

Rising to his feet, Thomas's eyes were hard as stone, "Leave, Mark. I don't have time for this."

" _Listen_  to me," Jack pleaded. "I'm your brother."

"No, you aren't. You're acting nothing like him," Thomas scowled. "Get out of here before I call the cops. You're obviously out of your mind."

" _Thomas_."

"LEAVE!" he bellowed.

Frightened by his thunderous expression, Jack fled. It was obviously futile. They were going to have to find some other way to evacuate the town's residents.

⋆✵⋆

Disheartened, he told his friends the news.

Ethan patted his shoulder, "It's okay, we'll figure something out. In any case, we got the food."

They were in Ethan's house, an assortment of snacks and nourishments scattered around his bedroom. He lived right by the elementary school, and was one of the only other places out of impact.

"So what do we do?" Tyler asked, nervously opening a bag of crisps.

"I don't know," Jack groaned with frustration. "People won't leave the festival just because one crazy person says the sky is falling."

"You're not crazy," Ethan told him instantly.

Tyler conceded with a stoic nod. "We need to cause something that makes everyone  _have_  to leave. Any ideas?"

"Fireworks malfunction?" Ethan suggested. "Forest fire? We could even spread a panic about the meteorites."

"How would we start a forest fire?" Jack asked, a little surprised by the drastic idea.

Ethan shrugged, "Fireworks malfunction?"

Tyler crossed his arms, "We can't start a forest fire. It's a bad idea."

"We can't," Jack agreed, "but we can make them  _think_  there is one." He opened Ethan's laptop and pulled up a map of Avalon. He zoomed in on a foresty area half a mile from the festival stands and pointed at a clearing. "If we make some sort of bonfire here, the smoke would make it look like a forest fire."

"Would that work?" Tyler asked, sounding unsure. "I don't think we'll have enough time to build a big enough bonfire."

"You're right," Jack sighed, lowering the laptop screen. "Other ideas?"

"Set the marketplace on fire?" Ethan offered.

Jack stared at him, "You need to cool it with the fire. We don't want any chance of anyone getting hurt."

"Sorry." Ethan tucked his legs up and rested his chin on his knees. "I'm out of other ideas."

Tyler exhaled thoughtfully, "If we get ahold of the PA system we could direct everyone towards the elementary school. If it comes from there, they'll believe the comet will split and strike the town."

Jack stood and walked to the window. He spotted a tall speaker just outside the school. "How would we do it?"

Tyler pointed at the school, "The high school has a broadcast room. They might, too. Ethan, you need to go there and turn off the school's power. Then you can use the emergency broadcast. If any trouble happens, you can come running right back to your house. Mark and I will get people to move."

⋆✵⋆

"Attention," came Ethan's voice over the loudspeakers. He'd disguised it so that it was lower. "This is Avalon City Hall. Our meteorologists have predicted that the comet will split. After calculating its trajectory, we've concluded that Avalon will be hit by its meteorites. Please evacuate to Avalon Elementary."

At the festival, residents regarded the comet in alarm.

"It doesn't look like it's going to hit us," a woman said uneasily.

"It's not splitting either," a kid complained poutily, snacking on a sausage. "I don't want to leave!"

Jack and Tyler tore through the market stalls, yelling for people to obey and head to the school.

"Mark? What's this about the comet fracturing?" Amy was coming towards them, Kathryn and Mark's mother in tow. "The news channels aren't saying  _anything_  about this. So how on earth would people in our tiny town know that this place would be obliterated?"

Jack was drawn from answering by a yank on his arm. "Mark, people aren't listening! They don't want to leave the festival!" Tyler looked desperate, "Do you have any idea what could make your brother see reason?"

Mark's mother coughed, "He'd never pay attention to  _me_ , but his brother..."

Jack was hit with an idea. "Yeah, I know someone who might." He made a frantic shooing gesture at Tyler, "Where's your bike?"

At that moment, Ethan's sentence was cut off. He'd been repeating the message to evacuate, and now it was just static. The townspeople stared at each other in confusion. Any who were planning to leave certainly wasn't going to now. Jack's heart sank. He needed to find a solution now more than ever.

"Where'd you put your bike?" he asked again.

Tyler pointed to the end of the market, "There. I'm going to find Ethan — Mark? Where are you going?!"

"Mark!" Amy shouted. "What's going on?!"

Their questions fell on deaf ears as Jack rushed to Tyler's bike and began the hard ride to the shrine.

_If I'm in Mark's body...he's in mine, at the shrine._

Sure, Mark will be there three years later...but he's there. And given all the crazy happenings, it was worth every shot he had left.

⋆✵⋆

When Mark awoke, he was surprised to see a rock ceiling above his head. He sat up and saw with bewilderment that he was in the family shrine.

He looked down at himself and realized he was in a leprechaun's body. "Wait, why is Jack here?"

He looked down at his hand and realized he was holding his pendant. "Wait, why is Jack holding this?"

Mark got to his feet. Upon closer inspection of the place, he noticed that it'd aged. Dust covered the other jade animals, and moss had grown over a portion of the floor, where water was slowly dripping from the ceiling.

Confused, he set the jade ox on the mantle and went out. The river was a lot wider and deeper than he remembered.

He splashed across, and suddenly remembered that he wasn't supposed to be alive.

Mark gasped, falling to the ground as his memories crashed down on him. He'd been on the plain with his friends. The comet had broken apart and struck Avalon.

Dust and dirt had filled the air, and buildings had been blown apart. The screams of him and his friends filled his ears...

"I died..." he whispered.

"MARK!"

Mark caught his breath and stumbled to his feet. Had he imagined it? It'd sounded like...his own voice.

But with an Irish accent.

He ran out of the clearing, onto a thin path surrounded by trees. The trail ended outside the small forest, over a ledge in the mountain where he could see the ruins of his town. The sun's rays were still visible as it nearly sank under the horizon.

He walked along the wide edge, "Jack?"

"Mark?!"

Mark turned. The voice had come from behind him. He backtracked, going more slowly this time. "Jack?"

At one point on the path, he felt a sort of tug, as if he'd gone too far and something was pulling him back.

He backed up, and then stopped.

"Mark."

"Jack."

Mark could hear him. He was right in front of him, but he couldn't see him.

As the sun disappeared from the sky, Mark felt a jolt go through him. And then Jack was in front of him, but in his own body. Bright green hair, and a blue jacket over a white shirt. And of course, a  _really_  handsome face.

Jack's blue eyes widened, and he stared at him. "You're here."

"Yeah... _wait_."

Jack blinked, the magical spell broken. "What?"

Mark narrowed his eyes, "You make out with my biceps! What the  _fuck_? Stop it!"

"You walk around my house without any pants on! You've scarred my dad!"

"You've scarred my stepsisters!"

"Hey," Jack poked him in the chest, "I brought you back to life — whoa I forgot how hard your muscles are — so you better be grateful."

Then Jack got distracted. He fixed his gaze to the sky, where the comet blazed across the sky, now fractured into a half-dozen red pieces. How could something so devastating be so beautiful? But most breathtaking of all, the sun's rays threw up stunning colors of light into the heavens. " _Eoseuleum,_ _"_ Jack murmured.

"Twilight," Mark translated, too amazed to wonder why Jack knew such a specific word in Korean.

"It's when the world blurs and you might meet something not human," Jack recited breathlessly. "That's what your mom said."

"I'm human," Mark noted.

Jack rolled his eyes, "I don't think that's what she meant." His expression became serious, "Listen Mark, you need to go back to the Center and convince your brother to call for an emergency evacuation."

"Thomas? But he hates me."

Jack shook his head, "That's not what your mom said."

Mark paused, then nodded. "Okay. I'll do it. It's our last chance anyway."

 _Our_. He'd said  _our_. Mark wanted to save his home and his own life, but he desperately wanted to meet Jack again too.

"One more thing." Jack patted his pockets, and took out a black felt-tip marker. He stared at it as if perplexed about why he had it, "I need to give this back to Signe." Then he uncapped it, "Sometimes I almost forget your name, and I'm sure you do too. I guess it's what happens when we only interact in dreams. I can't help thinking that once you save everyone, the switching will stop forever."

He grabbed Mark's hand and scribbled something on it before passing him the pen. "So if we write our names on each other, we can't forget."

"Right," Mark said, pressing the tip into Jack's waiting palm.

He'd only made one line before Jack vanished into thin air, and the sky went dark.

"Jack?" he asked. There was no reply, and his presence was gone. So was the pen.

 _Save your people_ , he told himself sternly.  _And_ then _work our your feelings about him._

Mark spun and found Tyler's bike stowed by the path down the mountain. As he rode, his heart pounding with the rhythm of his pedals, he recited Jack's name in his head.

It was true that his name disappeared from his mind from time to time, and even the way Jack looked. And he was determined to not let him disappear.

But the farther he went, the more his mind blanked when he thought of the Irishman. This was definitely the last switch, and now their memories of the other were being wiped.

When he came to the market, it was still bustling with people. Some were anxiously pointing out the burning meteors, but nobody was leaving.

Ethan spotted him and bounded over, "City officials came to the school and nearly got me, but I escaped in time. What happened with you?"

Mark stared straight through him, a cold feeling creeping up his spine. "I don't remember his name."

His friend gaped at him, "Whose name? Mark, there's no time. You have to try getting to your brother again."

"Yeah..." Mark nodded, and he guided the bicycle towards the City Center, ignoring the boy's concerned manner.

When he'd almost arrived, he lifted his left hand off the handlebars to read the name.

But there was none. The stupid idiot had written  **I love you**  instead.

⋆✵⋆

After stashing Tyler's bike outside, Mark strutted into the mayor's office.

"You again?" Thomas raged, rising to his feet. "What do you want this time? My town's already wondering what the hell is going on!" His furious expression died as he saw Mark's grim determination and tear-filled eyes.

Mark braced his hands on the desk, raising his head. "Tom,  _trust me_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT Oct 5 2018 - I am so so sorry for the huge hiatus. At first it was just writer's block, but now I've got so many things to do for school and college applications to write. I'll try to update once I have the time and right mindset, but that won't be until at least November.  
> I know that many of you really love this story, and some are even waiting for this last chapter before watching the movie. I can only say I'm sorry again, but thank you all so much for the positive comments.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave a comment and let me know what you think ^_^


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